The voter-approved tax rate election, also known as a VATRE, would provide an estimated $1.85 million to assist maintenance and operation funds for the district, Celina ISD Superintendent Thomas Maglisceau said at a Celina City Council meeting Sept. 10.
“This election would enable our district to access additional funding that’s available to school districts in the state through the state’s funding formula,” he said.
In case you missed it
The Celina ISD board of trustees approved calling a voter-approval tax rate election for Nov. 5 during an Aug. 19 school board meeting. A VATRE is used when a district needs to increase its tax rate above a certain threshold, which voters must then consider in an election.
Diving in deeper
Maintenance and operations, also known as M&O, funds the operation of schools. This includes teacher and staff salaries, safety and security as well as academic programming, Maglisceau said.
The district’s total tax rate would be $1.2358 per $100 valuation, if approved by voters. This is broken down between $0.7869 for maintenance and operations and $0.4489 for debt payments.
This is the sixth year district officials have approved the lower tax rate.
State funding for a district is based on average daily attendance, referred to as the basic allotment. The basic allotment for students is $6,160, which has not changed since 2019.
The district's board of trustees approved a $87.82 million budget with a $1.94 million shortfall in June.
CISD started making recapture payments in the 2021-22 school year since the district has been deemed property tax-wealthy due to Celina's growth.
The district’s budget accounts for a recapture payment of about $1.63 million. A recapture payment, also known as Robin Hood, takes local property tax dollars from a district to redistribute it to other public school districts.
“That is an amount that is increasing every single year,” Maglisceau said.
What’s next
If the maintenance and operations tax rate increase is not approved by voters, then the district’s tax rate will still be $1.2358 per $100 valuation.
This would be split between $0.7358 per $100 valuation for maintenance and operations. The tax rate for debt payments would be $0.50 per $100 valuation.
Early voting begins Oct. 21.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the voter-approval tax rate election will not raise the district's tax rate for FY 2024-25.
