Public school taxes involve two figures which divide the school district’s budget into two buckets the first is the maintenance and operations or mno tax rate which essentially funds all operating expenses including salaries and benefits utilities transportation maintaining school buildings and student programs the second is the interest and sinking rate known as
Ins which is used to repay bond debt school districts set the tax rate but the county appraisal district sets your property values what exactly is a bond a bond is similar to a home mortgage or home improvement loan it’s a contract to repay borrowed money over time school districts in the state of texas utilize bond elections to pay for items like new buildings
Additions and renovations land technology buses and equipment among other items and all school districts are required to ask voters for permission to sell bonds to fund those capital projects by law ins funds cannot be used for the operating budget which means voter approved bonds cannot be used to increase salaries or to pay rising costs of utilities or services
Why not use mno funds to pay for capital projects and improvements approximately 89 percent of georgetown isd’s mno budget is spent on salaries and benefits which leaves very little to pay for major capital projects and because the district is considered property wealthy georgetown isd must send about 19.4 million dollars back to the state of texas due to this
Recapture the district is only allowed to keep about 86 cents of every dollar from the mmo budget but with bond funds the district is allowed to keep every dollar the district has reduced the overall tax rate by 17.8 cents over the last three years dropping the total tax rate from 1.409 dollars in 2018 to its current rate of 1.231 the upcoming november 2nd bond
Election will be broken into five separate propositions propositions a through e totaling 381.7 million dollars if approved by voters the tax rate impact from this blind proposal could range from 0 cents to an estimated maximum of 2.6 cents per 100 valuation depending on the timing of the sale of bonds the entire 381.7 million dollars won’t be sold all at once
And would not be spent until needed once bonds are authorized by voters they are sold in increments over time as needed to fund the projects the tax rate could also be less than projected if the district’s tax base grows more than anticipated and or a lower interest rate is secured a variety of factors contribute to georgetown’s ability to issue bonds with an
Estimated maximum tax increase of 2.6 cents these factors include growth and developments with rapid growth new homes and developments are added to the tax rolls this generates additional tax revenue which helps finance new bonds paying down debt georgetown isd has a solid debt repayment plan with the maximum maturity on debt issued as 30 years georgetown isd has
Taken advantage of bond refinancing opportunities and has completed five refunds since 2011 resulting in more than 23.3 million dollars in savings the district has saved an additional 13.2 million dollars by prepaying bonds prior to final maturity and low interest rates based on current and projected market conditions georgetown isd can issue bonds at all-time
Low interest rates this makes it less costly to finance new bonds as a result of the district’s financial standings georgetown ise has been rated superior achievement by the state’s school financial integrity rating system of texas and maintain strong credit ratings of double a1 and double a from moody’s and s p respectively for more information about the november
2nd bond election please go to georgetown isd’s bond 2021 website thank you
Transcribed from video
GISD Bond 2021 Finance By Georgetown ISD
