Aug 08
Schools Vote on Property Taxes
In addition to arguments over raises and health benefits - disagreements school boards throughout the country deal with every year - the Austin school board must tackle a third issue in deciding its budget this year: property taxes.
Currently, the district operates at the highest property tax rate it can, 1.04 percent, without turning to the board for a vote. And with property values rising, it is expected that taxes will bring in added revenue in the upcoming year. However, much of that revenue will be given to the state to be distributed among property-poor districts. In fact, Austin must send $61 million to the state, so any additional money resulting from higher property values won’t last long.
The district, therefore, is requesting a budget in which taxes are raised to $1.0765 per $100 of assessed property values, for a total of $1.1995 including debt. This will couple with an overall budget increase of 8.8 percent to $862.5 million for the 2008-09 year. Employees would also get a three percent raise, and full health coverage would remain intact.
Whether this increase will occur is yet to be seen, as there are several other proposed budgets, each with its own take on property taxes. Education Austin, for example, is looking for a budget increase with a 5 percent raise for employees, in addition to family health coverage (the district’s plan covered employees only) and a wage increase for hourly employees. The budget would call for a property tax rate of $1.243 including debt.
If there were no tax increase, there would be no raise for employees and employees would have to contribute $348 a year for health insurance.
The school board was scheduled to vote on August 6 at an evening meeting. The results of that vote are as of this posting unknown.