School Tax Triggers Roll-Back Election
The GCISD Board of Trustees approved a 2000-2001 budget of $4.7 million in expected expenditures and projected revenues of $4.5 million at a special meeting Aug. 28. They then set a tax rate of $1.30 per $100 valuation, triggering an automatic tax rollback election.
The effective tax rate, the rate necessary to raise the same revenues as the past year, is $1.13 per $100 valuation. The highest tax rate without a rollback election is $1.19. The previous year’s tax rate was $1.45 per $100 on valuations which were $69 million less than the current year’s $329 million.
School Superintendent Steve Long said this is a benchmark year, and the district’s making a “greater tax effort” may allow it to keep more local money at home, but said there is no guarantee that will happen. He also said the district needs extra money to raise its reserves, which have been lowered to $1.5 million over the last several years. He plans to provide voters with more information prior to the election.
The vote on the tax rollback will take place at the General Election Nov. 7. If a rollback is mandated in the election, it would change the tax rate from the proposed $1.30 to $1.19. Long says the school district’s funding is 94 percent local, 4 percent federal, and 2 percent state.
In a change from the past, the meeting was opened with an invocation by Board President Jimmy Eggemeyer, who said he hoped other board members would take their turn delivering future invocations.