Tyler

By MEGAN MIDDLETON
Staff Writer

The Tyler ISD Board of Trustees unanimously adopted its 2008-09 budget of $129.99 million and set a half-cent lower tax rate during a special meeting Tuesday.

The new budget becomes effective Sept. 1.

No citizens spoke during a public hearing on the budget before the board adopted it.

The 2008-09 budget, which is $4.7 million larger than the current budget, includes pay raises for teachers and other employees.

TISD plans to give teachers a $1,200 pay increase, raise starting teacher pay from $38,000 to $39,500 and give 3 percent of the midpoint pay increase to other employees. The increases in salary account for about a $3.2 million increase in the budget.

"The lion's share of the new money is going to salary increases," TISD Superintendent Dr. Randy Reid said after the meeting. "It's not as much as we'd love to be able to do for our staff, but we know we have to stay competitive in a marketplace out here for us to be able to hire quality people and keep moving forward academically."

The current total tax rate for TISD is $1.215 per $100 valuation. That includes a maintenance and operations (M&O) tax rate of $1.0297 and a debt service tax rate of .1853 per $100 valuation.

The 2008-09 total tax rate trustees approved Tuesday is $1.21 per $100 valuation, which includes an M&O tax rate of $1.0247 per $100 valuation and a debt service tax rate of .1853 per $100 valuation. The adopted tax rate is a .4 percent, or a half-cent, decrease from the current rate.

In May, Tosha Bjork, director of financial services for TISD, told the board the district would likely need to raise its M&O rate by a penny.

But earlier this month, Ms. Bjork told trustees the rate could remain the same because the district will receive an unexpected increase in its target revenue per student.

A state recalculation resulted in TISD receiving $127 more per student in target revenue than in past years.

Because of the recalculation, the district received a payment from the state of about $2.8 million for the 2006-07 school year and expects to receive around that amount for the 2007-08 school year. The expected $2.8 million for the 2008-09 school year is being used to balance the 2008-09 budget, Ms. Bjork has said.

The district had recommended keeping the M&O tax rate at the current rate of $1.0297, but at a recent board meeting trustees voted 5-2 to lower it by the half-cent because of the extra revenue the district is receiving.

The adopted 2008-09 budget is $129,987,549, while the current year budget is $125,318,051 -- an increase of about $4.7 million, or 3.7 percent.

"We believe this provides for our basic needs but is not a budget that has us spending money frivolously, for sure," Reid said of the adopted budget after Tuesday's meeting.

Other increases besides the pay raises include an extra $578,000 in the transportation budget for fuel and $500,000 extra for utilities. The district is also proposing to put $350,000 toward the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program.

About $375,000 was cut from the original proposed budget because of the board's decision to cut the tax rate by a half cent. That amount was cut from the $500,000 originally set aside for technology purchases.

Reid has said previously that the good news is the cut came from a spot that was a new allocation of money anyway.

He also said Tuesday that reserves can be used to support technology next year.

The total taxable values for TISD for 2008-09 were about $7.4 billion, about a $500 million, or 7.2 percent, increase from the 2007-08 taxable values of about $6.9 billion, according to figures from the Smith County Appraisal District.

Property tax revenues for TISD in 2008-09 are projected to be $84,019,797, up about $4.2 million from 2007-08 property tax revenues of $79,831,670. That's a 5.2 percent increase. Those figures are based on a 96.75 percent collection rate.

The average home value for TISD for 2008-09 is $131,048. That's a $5,411, or about a 4.3 percent, increase from the average home value in TISD for 2007-08 of $125,637.

The average tax bill, factoring in a $15,000 homestead exemption, will be $1,404.18 for 2008-09, using the lower tax rate of $1.21.

That's about a 4.5 percent, or $59.94, increase from the 2007-08 average tax bill of $1,344.24.

Reid said the general fund budget is funded 58 percent by local dollars and 42 percent by state dollars.

Trustee Gene Shull said Tuesday he wanted to clarify for the public that those figures don't mean the district is "getting a ride" from the growth of the tax base.

Reid said, "The state kicks in only that percentage we don't raise in local tax dollars. This budget does reflect a higher percentage coming from local tax dollars than last year."