The board of trustees voted to approve the fiscal year 2025-26 budget during its June 5 meeting.
The vote came after a public hearing on both the budget and the proposed tax rate.
Two-minute impact
The approved operating budget anticipates $439 million in expenditures against $401 million in revenue. District officials also expect about $10 million from other sources, such as grants, and anticipates ending FY 2025-26 with a $28 million shortfall. For fiscal year 2024-25, the district anticipated a $27 million shortfall but will end with a $10 million shortfall.
Additionally, RISD will pay about $6 million in recapture, a program that redistributes property tax dollars from property-wealthy districts to those the state deems property poor.
Budget explained
Assistant Superintendent David Pate said the FY 2025-26 budget is based on current state laws and doesn’t reflect legislation passed during the 89th Texas legislative session, which ended June 2, such as House Bill 2. HB 2 restructures school finance and was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 4.
“It will take several months for the Texas Education Agency to provide all of the guidance to us to fully unpack that legislation,” Pate said. “We will be monitoring that and updating [the board of trustees] as we learn more about the impact to the district.”
He also said the district anticipates an enrollment decline of 430 students, going from 36,971 students in the 2024-25 school year to 36,541 students in 2025-26, which will affect the district's average daily attendance funding.
While the tax rate is decreasing, the average taxable value of a home in the district is projected to increase from $289,070 to $330,771, according to district documents.
A closer look
Instruction, which pays for teacher salaries, is the largest expenditure at $271 million. The second highest expenditure is maintenance and operations, which totals about $38 million.
The operating budget does not include the child nutrition fund, which is expected to generate $17.23 million against $20.42 million in expenditures, and the debt services fund, which is expected to generate $124 million against $145 million in expenditures.
What else
District staff proposed a tax rate of $1.0905 per $100 of assessed value; however, the tax rate was not approved. It will be approved during the August or September board meeting. The current tax rate is $1.10520 per $100 of assessed value.
