The state of Austin ISD's finances and the best ways to move forward in budgetary planning for fiscal year 2017-18 were discussed at Monday night's board of trustees meeting.
Chief Financial Officer Nicole Conley Johnson reiterated that the projections are based on current knowledge and could change based on factors such as legislative action. This is the first of three budget discussions leading up to June 19, when the board is scheduled to vote on adoption of the budget. Here are some of the key takeaways:
- Changes in demographics will result in a loss of state funding. As affordability issues continue to push families out of Central Austin, less students will qualify for free and reduced lunch, which translates to less compensatory education and Title 1 funding that assists districts with high populations of low-income students. Wealth per Average Daily Attendance, or WADA, and Average Daily Attendance, or ADA, funding from the state will also decline due to enrollment decreases.
- Conley said recapture, or the act of redistributing funds from property-wealthy districts to property-poor districts, will continue to deliver the heaviest blow to the district's expenditures, with 45.6 percent of all local property tax revenue in FY 2017-18 to be recaptured by the state under the Robin Hood law.
- An increase in expenses is primarily fueled by an uptick in health care costs, which are projected to increase by 8-15 percent next year. In FY 2017-18, health care costs for the district will increase by $6 million compared to FY 2016-17.
- Total revenue for FY 2017-18 will amount to approximately $1.3 billion. According to Johnson, the district will retain very little of it due to a decrease in per capita funding from the state and the impact of state recapture.
- The preliminary budget projections do not take into account changes in salary, which Johnson said will be discussed at a later date.
