Cooke Co. supers watch, wait on legislative session
Jan. 10—Cooke County's school superintendents are bracing for the new legislative session, which opens today in Austin. Some sort of property tax relief is likely — but what form it will take remains to be seen.Several property tax proposals could come up during the session, including one by State Rep. David Spiller (R-68) to replace local school levies for maintenance and operations with a new sales tax.
It seems likely, however, that the state will continue to claw back money from school districts that raise more property tax revenues than projected for a given budget year. The process, called compression, effectively gives the legislature and the Texas Education Agency control over spending by local school districts.
"I do expect the state to compress local tax rates again," said Don Metzler, superintendent of Callisburg ISD. "My hope is that they raise the Basic Allotment from the current $6,160 per student and provide for an annual inflationary adjustment to this amount. The current basic allotment amount of $6,160 has been in place for the past four years.
"School districts have seen inf lation increase the cost of almost everything we buy over the past four years. The state needs to recognize that inflation exists and make allowances for it in their formula for state aid to schools."
Gainesville ISD Superintendent DesMontes Stewart is a bit more skeptical than Metzler.
"I do believe that we will see tax rates compressed even further and I do not see any foreseeable assistance from the state coming to help offset this," Stewart said. "I understand the purpose behind wanting to save taxpayers money, but we also depend on those funds to help with district operation and building upkeep."
Another sore spot for the superintendents is the increasing challenges for local districts wanting to float bonds to pay for much needed upkeep of buildings and campuses. Metzler said he'd like the legislature to relinquish some of its power back to the locals.
"I wish the legislature would give back some 'local control' to school districts, cities, and other municipal entities concerning elections," Metzler said. "Our state legislators seem to be trying to take away local control by mandating when elections can be held and the rules governing them. It was only a few years ago that a school district could hold a school bond election whenever they wanted to and use 'motor voting' options to increase voter turnout. Under current law, we can only hold bond elections in May and November and the use of 'motor voting' has had several stipulations tied to it that make it almost useless."
Scott Bicknell, Muenster ISD Superintendent, is bit more hopeful than Stewart and Metzler.
"The thing I would pray about the most from our legislators is that they keep in mind just how important our students are at our schools and just how important our schools are to our communities," Bicknell said. "Students are the most important thing and regardless of all of the other stuff during this legislative session, students will ultimately be the ones affected, positively or negatively."
