NOW THAT TEACHER RAISES ARE COMING, IS BISD TAX INCREASE NECESSARY?

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Various Sources

Given the announcement by Texas Governor Greg Abbott

on Tuesday that he has come to an agreement with House Speaker Dade Phelan to establish education savings accounts in Texas that includes raises for teachers, does the increase in local property taxes to give teachers of the Brownsville Independent School District necessary?

Abbott's announcement comes just one week before the deadline for state lawmakers to pass any legislation during the third special legislative session of the year in Texas.

Abbott said that all students, regardless of whether they attend private or public schools, would be eligible to participate in the program. Each student would receive approximately $10,400 per year.

The agreement between Abbott and Phelan coincided with the governor's decision to expand the agenda for the special session. This expansion now includes funding for teacher salary increases and school safety measures, which were not initially part of the agenda.

The BISD included the tax increase in this year's ballot under "Proposition A" and would raise an additional $10,431,345 for a 2 percent raise for district teachers, staff and administrators. 

Under that plan, the more you make the higher the amount of the raise. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that high-paid administrators will receive the most money from its passage compared to lower paid BISD teachers and employees. 

Although BISD and its counsel argued that the additional tax did not really constitute an "increase," this belies the fact that under state law, any additional funds through property taxation apart from the complex formula that caps ad valorem taxes in the state is an increase regardless of the interpretation.

In fact, Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector Tony Yzaguirre said that the county had predicted that the state's Proposition 4 which authorizes the state to send more than $7 billion to local school districts so they can lower their tax rates, saving homeowners an average of $1,300 a year,. and that an estimated $5.6 billion would be used to pay for boosting the homestead exemption, lopping $100,000 off the value of a home for school tax purposes, up from the current $40,000 exemption.

And it will offset the spiraling property value assessments by local appraisal districts, which, in Cameron County sometimes have more than doubled. Even after the tax rolls were approved, all the protests against the increases  have not been heard.

"We predicted that the state voters would vote to lower their property taxes and increase the homestead exemption to $100,000 from $40,000 and included it in figuring out the property taxes instead of waiting for the results on November 7," he said. "In figuring out its tax rates, the BISD also predicted that voters would approve its Proposition A and included the increase it in its rate. If the increase doesn't pass, we will be forced to make refunds of the $10 million to more than 80,000 property owners."

By predicting the Proposition 4 on the state ballot would pass, Yzaguirre said that it allowed taxpayers to benefit from the 3 percent discount if they paid in October and subsequent discounts if payment is made for the following months. It also allowed small taxing district which depend on tax collections to maintain their revenue streams.

If, as it seems likely now, the governor and the House reach an agreement on vouchers and teacher raises and then BISD's Proposition A passes, local taxpayers will have in effect paid additional taxes to fund the raises that the state appears likely to pass during this special session.

Did the BISD board and administration jump the gun by placing the Proposition A tax increase on the local ballot and place an unnecessary tax burden on district property owners? 

Recommendation? Vote "No" on BISD Proposition A on the flip side of the ballot.