BISD proposes new tax rate

The BISD school board met in special session on August 2 and August 9, toiling over the 2009-10 budget and working to set the 2009 tax rate.

At the first meeting, the trustees learned that the district's property valuation has dropped considerably from last year. Based upon the significant decrease in local oil and gas values, (now established on the January 1 evaluation), property values have fallen more than $123 Million and the district stands to lose $1,234,695 in revenue over last year. What sounds like bad news may actually have a positive twist. The rising tax base in the past few years had put BISD in danger of crossing the line between being a Chapter 42 school -- one which receives money from the State -- and moving up to a Chapter 41 classification, meaning that the district which would have to pay into the State's education coffers, under the "Robin Hood" plan. The decline in the district's tax base has eliminated that possibility, for the time being.

Monday night's meeting focused on proposing the new tax rate. The M&O (maintenance and operations) tax rate is based on a compressed tax formula defined by the State. The I&S (interest and sinking, or bonded indebtedness) rate is determined by the local board. Superintendent Jackie Thomason and Business Manager Jeannine Myers reported that BISD has a fund balance in I&S ($294,904) which could be applied to reduce our tax rate. The Board members discussed several scenarios whereby either some or all of that fund balance be applied to pay the debt down, so that the new tax rate increase could be minimized. Myers shared the advice from Region 6 Financial Consultant Dale Dixon, who recommended that the district hold some of the fund balance in reserve. Myers concurred. "I feel very comfortable using half... we'd still have a fund balance to work with in case of unforeseen problems. We saw a major decrease in values this year and there may be another next year. We may not have seen the whole slowdown yet," she pointed out.

Each board member expressed their opinion. Jack Helmcamp pushed adamantly for using the entire available fund balance in order to minimize the tax rate increase. The consensus of the discussion, however, was that it would be prudent to commit only half of the fund balance to pay the debt down. That would, they concluded, effectively minimize the necessary tax increase this year without necessitating a major jump in rates the following year.

After much discussion, the Board voted to propose an M&O rate of $1.04005/ $100 property value and an I&S rate of $00.24652 for a total tax rate of $1.28657. This is an increase of 0.04517 (four and a half cents per $100 property value). Helmcamp cast the lone opposing vote.

In the rest of the meeting the Board discussed contracting with Physicians Centre Hospital of Bryan, a firm which would provide athletic trainers to be in attendance at home games. The need for the service became apparent during last year's football games when several student athletes were injured and the coaching staff had no trained respondees. The Board voted to contract for the sports medicine service agreement, at Level 3.

The public hearing on the proposed tax rate will be on August 31 at the BJHS library, and the Board may adopt the rate and budget at the regular meeting which follows at 6:00 pm.