Austin ISD officials broke out into cheers during an election night watch party Tuesday as it became clear voters had approved a tax rate increase that will raise millions of dollars for the district. The district plans to use that money to give most employees raises and help pay down its $119 million budget deficit.
About 58% of voters approved Austin ISD Proposition A, according to unofficial results from the Travis County Clerk.
“I am just so encouraged and so grateful to our community for choosing to invest in our schools and our students,” Arati Singh, AISD school board president, said. “Let’s really focus now on getting some good laws passed in the Legislature in January.”
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The proposed increase is 9.1 cents per $100 of a property’s taxable value, which would raise the tax rate from $0.8595 to $0.9505. According to the district, someone with a home worth just over $553,000 will see their school district property taxes go up by about $34 per month.
Austin ISD estimates the tax rate increase would generate $171 million in new revenue. The district would keep $41 million, while $130 million would head to the state because of recapture. The decades-old system, also known as “Robin Hood,” redistributes money from districts with high property values to those with lower property values. Essentially, if a district collects more in property taxes than the state's school finance formulas say it needs to operate, the extra funding goes to other schools.
Of the $41 million Austin ISD would keep, $17.8 million has been earmarked to give 85% of regular, benefits-eligible staff a raise. The goal, district officials have said, is to make salaries more competitive with surrounding school systems, especially when it comes to veteran teachers.
Superintendent Matias Segura said it's "huge" the district will be able to offer raises that it would not have been able to afford without this new source of funding.
"The single unit of change in our classrooms is our educators and if we're not investing in them, then our students are not going to get what they need to be successful," he said.
Kynan Murtagh, who has been teaching in the district for eight years, said he's grateful voters approved the proposition. While he's slated to only get a little over a 1% raise, he said he's happy teachers with more experience are getting higher increases.
"The people that have been there longer than me, there's not a ton of them, and they are very good at their job and they deserve more money," he said.
If Prop A had failed, full-time staff were only going to receive a one-time payment of $500. The raises employees are now going to receive will be retroactive to their first day of work for the current school year.
The district plans to use $20 million of the new funding to chip away at its budget deficit. The remaining $3.2 million is set to go toward more mental health and special education support for schools.
Among the groups that supported Prop A was the Austin Chamber. President and CEO Jeremy Martin said the chamber wants to make sure the district has the resources it needs to prepare students for life after school.
“The chamber board of directors voted in favor of this ballot initiative to ensure we have a local talent development pipeline, where every student is prepared with the knowledge and skills to thrive in college, career, and life,” he said.
The Austin Council of PTAs and Education Austin, the union representing district employees, also endorsed the tax rate increase. And while several former school board members also back Prop A, a group of 10 former trustees spoke out against it. One of the key reasons they opposed it was the percentage of money subject to recapture.
Even with the measure's passage, Austin ISD officials said the district must still cut roughly $90 million in spending over the next three years to balance its budget.
Manor ISD, Liberty Hill ISD, San Marcos CISD and Marble Falls ISD had tax rate elections on their ballots as well. Manor ISD's tax rate proposition passed; it will generate $4.8 million for employee raises, school safety and reducing its budget deficit.
Austin ISD voters also decided on a couple seats on the school board.
LaRessa Quintana defeated Sarah Ivory in the District 2 race to replace outgoing Trustee Ofelia Zapata.
Six people ran for the Trustee At-Large Position 8 seat Noelita Lugo is vacating. Fernando Lucas de Urioste, who got just over 32% of the vote, is heading to a runoff against Lindsey Stringer, who received nearly 26% of the vote. Election Day for the runoff is Dec. 14.
Incumbents Kevin Foster and Lynn Boswell ran unopposed for District 3 and 5, respectively.
