The Northside ISD Board of Trustees Tuesday night approved the 2008-09 budget and also voted to increase the District's property tax rate to pay for enrollment growth, teacher raises, rising utility and fuel costs, and inflation.
The $1.081 billion budget will fund the opening of five new schools and 527 new staff positions to accommodate an enrollment that is growing by about 3,000 new students a year. Current enrollment is estimated at about 88,596, and earlier this week, the District opened a new high school, a middle school and three elementary schools.
The District's tax rate will increase 4 cents from $1.2625 to $1.3025 to help generate an additional $24.8 million in revenue. The additional 4 cents on the tax rate is needed because funding from the state has been stagnant the last two years and will not increase unless the Legislature takes action on school finance in the upcoming 2009 legislative session, Superintendent John Folks said.
A school district's tax rate is made up of two parts - Maintenance and Operations (M&O) and Interest and Sinking (I&S). The M&O portion of the tax rate funds the day-to-day operations of a school district including salaries. The I&S tax rate funds capital improvements like new schools and renovations.
In 2006, the Legislature mandated that all school districts reduce their M&O tax rate to $1 but authorized school boards to increase the tax rate by up to 4 cents without voter approval. Up until now, Northside ISD was the only school district in Bexar County that had not increased the M&O tax rate beyond $1. Even with the tax increase, the District will have the fourth lowest tax rate in the county.
In addition, Northside's I&S tax rate will remain the same, which is more than 5 cents lower than what was projected when voters passed School Bond 2007.
