Let me say one thing first. I don’t like taxes. I don’t like paying them and I don’t like it when governments raise them. That said, I support the school district’s proposed 13 cent tax increase.

The school board will seek a 13 cent tax increase in October. This increase would bring them up to an M&O tax rate of $1.17 per $100 valuation. That’s the maximum that districts can charge.

I think most people who oppose tax rate increases do so for two reasons.

First, the perception is that government budgets are bloated and the way to solve funding problems is cut the fat.

Second, people feel like the need for more revenue was caused by poor decisions in the past and that a tax increase would encourage more poor decisions.

I won’t rehash the issues that gave rise to the tax rate increase. You can read my previous articles here and here.

In short, the Legislature lowered the maximum M&O tax rate from $1.50 to $1.00. School Districts could apply for the “golden pennies” and get a rate of $1.04. This is the first year the new law allows schools to raise taxes, but the increase cannot go above $1.17. Even so, that’s roughly a 20% cut in revenue from the pre-reform rules.

And the state has not replaced that funding as promised.

The bottom line is that the immediacy for additional revenue was caused by the Texas Legislature taking a large portion of the district’s revenue and not returning the money to the district through state funding. Read more »

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