Kingwood Observer - News
Humble ISD to hold public meetings to talk tax election
By RYAN HICKMAN
In an attempt to keep the topic of its Nov. 22 tax rollback referendum in the minds of local voters amid the wider election season, Humble Independent School District will be hosting a series of informational town hall meetings.
The gatherings, open to the public, will be held Oct. 21 at Kingwood High School, Oct. 28 at Kingwood Park, Oct. 30 at Atascocita High School and Nov. 13 at Humble High.
“We just have to make, in my opinion, every human effort possible to enable the community to be informed and as accurately informed as possible,” Superintendent Dr. Guy Sconzo explained about the purpose of the town hall meetings.
Sconzo and trustees will tour the district to campaign for the 13-cent tax increase that will be on the ballot while answering inquiries from taxpayers.
“We’re just trying to give people the facts as they are today and give them the decision come November,” board President Dave Martin said.
The facts being laid out will begin with the nearly $17 million budget deficit that the district is facing for the current school year. Revenue from the 13 cents on the ballot has been projected to balance this school year’s budget after the board made nearly $8 million in cuts on campuses across the district. The particulars of the cuts have not been released.
The extra 13 cents would bring the overall tax rate to $1.52 per every $100 of residential value after district taxpayers OK’d an 8-cent hike in May.
The current referendum on the 13 cents and the 8 cents passed for the bond this year are sectioned off into a pair of different budgets with separate functions.“There’s two different buckets of money,” Martin explained. “You can’t take money from one bucket to pay for the other bucket’s expenses.” The 8 cents essentially pays for bond funds that are strictly used to build more schools as thousands of additional students are expected to join Humble ISD’s more than 33,000 students in the next decade.
The 13 cents will go to the district’s operating budget, which doles out payroll, maintenance and upkeep of the schools. This budget has been strained by the state’s funding system and the overall rise in the cost of commodities and general inflation, according to the district.
The board passed the move for the 13-cent tax referendum in September with only trustee Robert Scarfo dissenting during the vote.
Scarfo has maintained that the board should have made harder decisions about trimming the budget before going to the voters with a tax increase that pushes the rate to the state limit.
“The reason I voted no at this point for holding the rollback election is that I still feel the board needs to take more of a leadership role in prioritizing what we can afford to expend funds on in the district given our budget constraints by the state....Because in my opinion that’s what they elected the board to do,” Scarfo said. “Without any change to the current state funding formula we will still be facing a near $20 million deficit in the 2009-2010 fiscal year. This is why beyond this rollback election we really need to focus our stakeholders on convincing our legislators throughout the state that this current formula needs to change.”
Both Martin and Sconzo believe that the cuts that will come as a result of a failed tax referendum will not only drag down the quality of the schools but in turn sour the home values within Humble ISD’s boundaries.
“If we have to find $17 million more in cuts it’s going to affect the core of our educational program. If that does happen, I’m worried there is going to be a negative effect on homeowners moving into our district and that directly affects property values,” Martin said. “There is a direct correlation between the education system we provide for our kids and property values.”
Jim Robinson, chief appraiser for the Harris County Appraisal District, explained that it’s difficult to calculate a negative effect on the value of homes until months after programs are cut from a school district and the residential real estate market has had time to react. But it’s a general rule in his business that school districts dictate home buying.
“It has been my experience when a person is buying a home with school children they want to buy into a strong school district with good educational programs,” Robinson said. “It does have an influence on what market choices people make if they have school age kids.”
In addition to program cuts and property values, Sconzo said the town hall meetings will be a chance to explain the financial bind in which the state has put fast-growth school districts like Humble’s.
When the Legislature passed House Bill 1 in 2006 it froze its funding that it sends to each school district at the 2005-06 level and provided districts the opportunity to go to its taxpayers for a boost in its budget.
“Under the current state funding system [raising taxes] is the only option given to school districts to increase operating revenue,” Sconzo explained. “On the other side of the ledger there is the option to decrease expenditures. We have done that every year since 2002 to the sum total of $27 million in operating reductions.”
Humble ISD’s funding allotment from Austin has stayed at $4,937 per student from the ’05-’06 school year, which is below the state average, according to Joe Smith of TexasISD.com, a website that monitors public school issues across the state.
“The state average in the state of Texas is $5,076 so Humble’s base funding is not even at average,” Smith said in a phone interview last week.
He said that House Bill 1’s structure has forced not only fast-growth school districts like Humble ISD to call tax rollback elections but has forced an unusual number of districts into the red with tax rollback elections to follow.“It is a large number of school districts this year that adopted deficit budgets,” Smith, a retired public school superintendent, explained. “Some of the districts that have had the elections already have had about 70 percent passage. Some of them are looking at it from the perspective that either the people want to keep the programs or not. There are some tough choices to be made.”
State Sen. Tommy Williams, who sits on the Senate Education Committee, said House Bill 1 was constructed to let the voters determine what they wanted in schools.
“We have clearly set this decision up for local residents to vote on,” Williams said. “I will respect the voters’ decision.”
Smith insisted that House Bill 1’s original function has run its course.“The community could add these pennies if they wanted something above the basics for their kids,” Smith said about the room for a tax increase that House Bill 1 allowed. “But that’s not the way it’s turned out. These schools are having these elections because they have no choice. The sad thing is that they are not a solution but a necessity to hopefully buy time until there is a solution.”
According to Smith, there have been three election cycles since House Bill 1 came into effect that resulted in 15 tax rollback elections across the state in 2006, 120 in 2007, which carried about an 80 percent success rate, and there are another 107 districts in Texas having elections this fall.
But as Humble ISD prepares for its tax referendum, Sconzo insisted it is only part of the process to fix the district’s financial ills.
“In addition to a successful rollback election we still need to get the state funding system changed,” Sconzo said. “It really takes both to solve this problem long term.”
Roycelyn Bastian contributed reporting to this story.
13-cent increase
A 13-cent increase in school district taxes will translate into monthly increases on homes in the district. For example, a $1.52 tax rate on $100 of taxable residential value translates into $11 more a month to just over $126 a month for a house worth $100,000.
TOWN HALL MEETINGS
All meetings start at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 21, Kingwood High School
Tuesday, Oct. 28, Kingwood Park High School
Thursday, Oct. 30, Atascocita High School
Thursday, Nov. 13, Humble High School
The gatherings, open to the public, will be held Oct. 21 at Kingwood High School, Oct. 28 at Kingwood Park, Oct. 30 at Atascocita High School and Nov. 13 at Humble High.
“We just have to make, in my opinion, every human effort possible to enable the community to be informed and as accurately informed as possible,” Superintendent Dr. Guy Sconzo explained about the purpose of the town hall meetings.
Sconzo and trustees will tour the district to campaign for the 13-cent tax increase that will be on the ballot while answering inquiries from taxpayers.
“We’re just trying to give people the facts as they are today and give them the decision come November,” board President Dave Martin said.
The facts being laid out will begin with the nearly $17 million budget deficit that the district is facing for the current school year. Revenue from the 13 cents on the ballot has been projected to balance this school year’s budget after the board made nearly $8 million in cuts on campuses across the district. The particulars of the cuts have not been released.
The extra 13 cents would bring the overall tax rate to $1.52 per every $100 of residential value after district taxpayers OK’d an 8-cent hike in May.
The current referendum on the 13 cents and the 8 cents passed for the bond this year are sectioned off into a pair of different budgets with separate functions.“There’s two different buckets of money,” Martin explained. “You can’t take money from one bucket to pay for the other bucket’s expenses.” The 8 cents essentially pays for bond funds that are strictly used to build more schools as thousands of additional students are expected to join Humble ISD’s more than 33,000 students in the next decade.
The 13 cents will go to the district’s operating budget, which doles out payroll, maintenance and upkeep of the schools. This budget has been strained by the state’s funding system and the overall rise in the cost of commodities and general inflation, according to the district.
The board passed the move for the 13-cent tax referendum in September with only trustee Robert Scarfo dissenting during the vote.
Scarfo has maintained that the board should have made harder decisions about trimming the budget before going to the voters with a tax increase that pushes the rate to the state limit.
“The reason I voted no at this point for holding the rollback election is that I still feel the board needs to take more of a leadership role in prioritizing what we can afford to expend funds on in the district given our budget constraints by the state....Because in my opinion that’s what they elected the board to do,” Scarfo said. “Without any change to the current state funding formula we will still be facing a near $20 million deficit in the 2009-2010 fiscal year. This is why beyond this rollback election we really need to focus our stakeholders on convincing our legislators throughout the state that this current formula needs to change.”
Both Martin and Sconzo believe that the cuts that will come as a result of a failed tax referendum will not only drag down the quality of the schools but in turn sour the home values within Humble ISD’s boundaries.
“If we have to find $17 million more in cuts it’s going to affect the core of our educational program. If that does happen, I’m worried there is going to be a negative effect on homeowners moving into our district and that directly affects property values,” Martin said. “There is a direct correlation between the education system we provide for our kids and property values.”
Jim Robinson, chief appraiser for the Harris County Appraisal District, explained that it’s difficult to calculate a negative effect on the value of homes until months after programs are cut from a school district and the residential real estate market has had time to react. But it’s a general rule in his business that school districts dictate home buying.
“It has been my experience when a person is buying a home with school children they want to buy into a strong school district with good educational programs,” Robinson said. “It does have an influence on what market choices people make if they have school age kids.”
In addition to program cuts and property values, Sconzo said the town hall meetings will be a chance to explain the financial bind in which the state has put fast-growth school districts like Humble’s.
When the Legislature passed House Bill 1 in 2006 it froze its funding that it sends to each school district at the 2005-06 level and provided districts the opportunity to go to its taxpayers for a boost in its budget.
“Under the current state funding system [raising taxes] is the only option given to school districts to increase operating revenue,” Sconzo explained. “On the other side of the ledger there is the option to decrease expenditures. We have done that every year since 2002 to the sum total of $27 million in operating reductions.”
Humble ISD’s funding allotment from Austin has stayed at $4,937 per student from the ’05-’06 school year, which is below the state average, according to Joe Smith of TexasISD.com, a website that monitors public school issues across the state.
“The state average in the state of Texas is $5,076 so Humble’s base funding is not even at average,” Smith said in a phone interview last week.
He said that House Bill 1’s structure has forced not only fast-growth school districts like Humble ISD to call tax rollback elections but has forced an unusual number of districts into the red with tax rollback elections to follow.“It is a large number of school districts this year that adopted deficit budgets,” Smith, a retired public school superintendent, explained. “Some of the districts that have had the elections already have had about 70 percent passage. Some of them are looking at it from the perspective that either the people want to keep the programs or not. There are some tough choices to be made.”
State Sen. Tommy Williams, who sits on the Senate Education Committee, said House Bill 1 was constructed to let the voters determine what they wanted in schools.
“We have clearly set this decision up for local residents to vote on,” Williams said. “I will respect the voters’ decision.”
Smith insisted that House Bill 1’s original function has run its course.“The community could add these pennies if they wanted something above the basics for their kids,” Smith said about the room for a tax increase that House Bill 1 allowed. “But that’s not the way it’s turned out. These schools are having these elections because they have no choice. The sad thing is that they are not a solution but a necessity to hopefully buy time until there is a solution.”
According to Smith, there have been three election cycles since House Bill 1 came into effect that resulted in 15 tax rollback elections across the state in 2006, 120 in 2007, which carried about an 80 percent success rate, and there are another 107 districts in Texas having elections this fall.
But as Humble ISD prepares for its tax referendum, Sconzo insisted it is only part of the process to fix the district’s financial ills.
“In addition to a successful rollback election we still need to get the state funding system changed,” Sconzo said. “It really takes both to solve this problem long term.”
Roycelyn Bastian contributed reporting to this story.
13-cent increase
A 13-cent increase in school district taxes will translate into monthly increases on homes in the district. For example, a $1.52 tax rate on $100 of taxable residential value translates into $11 more a month to just over $126 a month for a house worth $100,000.
TOWN HALL MEETINGS
All meetings start at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 21, Kingwood High School
Tuesday, Oct. 28, Kingwood Park High School
Thursday, Oct. 30, Atascocita High School
Thursday, Nov. 13, Humble High School
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