A $0.0425 increase to Montgomery ISD’s annual tax rate will go before voters after the district’s board of trustees decided on Aug. 19 to place the initiative on the November ballot.

In a nutshell

MISD faces a $4.3 million shortfall for the fiscal year 2024-25 general fund budget, as previously reported by Community Impact. Whether that funding gap can be filled with $5.5 million in revenue through a voter-approved tax rate ballot initiative will be up to voters, according to a unanimous vote by the MISD board of trustees unanimous Aug. 19.

Trustees also unanimously approved the district’s new tax rate at $1.0912 per $100 valuation, according to an Aug. 19 news release from MISD. MISD’s FY 2023-24 tax rate was $1.0487 per $100 valuation, which was a $0.2 drop year-over-year, as previously reported by Community Impact.

“We're not living frivolously. ... We have tightened our belt to the point that we need to to consider all of these options,” board President Matt Fuller said Aug. 19.

As previously reported by Community Impact, if approved by voters, the voter-approval tax rate election would:

• Cost a homeowner about $8.85 per month on a $350,000 house
• Not increase taxes for voters age 65 and older

Quote of note

Board member Elizabeth Ivey said she believes MISD has a great culture for employees, but the district can’t compete with other districts that host “giant recruiting events” or focus on recruiting teachers before they graduate.

“That's not something that we're able to do right now in a $4 million deficit,” Ivey said. “We can't implement these strategies, and we're just going to grow, so our ability to recruit new teachers into our district is extremely important, and something we really need to prioritize.”

Diving deeper

On Aug. 19, MISD Chief Financial Officer Ben Davidson said that MISD’s FY 2024-25 tax rate is made up of two parts:

• $0.3743 per $100 valuation for the interest and sinking tax rate, which funds debt payments from bonds and is the same as the the FY 2023-24 I&S rate
• $0.7169 per $100 valuation for the maintenance and operations tax rate—which funds the general operations of MISD, including personnel salaries—and was $0.6744 per $100 valuation for FY 2023-24

The context

Superintendent Mark Ruffin said MISD’s FY 2024-25 shortfall can be attributed to:

• A lack of funding increases made for public schools during the 88th legislative session
• Unfunded mandates
• Inflation increasing district costs
• Rising special education costs

“Over the next several months, our stakeholders, our community, we're going to be working very hard to connect with you and to educate those that may not have a direct interaction with the school district. ... It's not our job to convince voters how to vote. It's just our job to educate the voters to go vote,” Ruffin said.