San Benito voting begins on shifting funds for raises

SAN BENITO — Early voting began Tuesday for a Sept. 18 election in which school officials will ask voters to allow the district to shift its tax dollars to leverage more state money to pay employee raises.

The election will not ask voters to increase the district’s property tax rate of $1.30 per $100 valuation, said Emma McCall, the district’s business manager.

The district will ask voters to allow it to move about $4 million in tax money from its debt service fund to its operating fund, McCall said.

In the district’s operating fund, the money would generate an additional $2.8 million in state funds, McCall said.

The plan would allow the district to leverage more state money that it would use to pay for $2 million in employee raises, McCall said.

Officials shifted the same tax money last year, but a May Texas Attorney General’s opinion
states that school districts must obtain voters’ approval to move tax money to leverage state funds, officials said.

The district’s tax rate includes $1.04 for the operating fund and 26 cents for the debt service fund.

School officials propose shifting 13 cents of the tax rate from the district’s debt service to its operating fund.

The district’s operating account pays for such expenses as salaries, utilities, equipment and supplies, while the debt service pays long-term debt such as bond issues used to fund construction projects.

In the district’s debt service fund, 13 cents of the tax rate generates about $4 million, McCall said. But when it’s shifted into the operating fund, that 13 cents generates a total of $6.8 million, based on a state funding formula that compensates districts with low tax bases, she said.

The additional money would fund about $2 million in employee raises while officials plan to use $2.8 million to pay off debt, McCall said.

Early voting runs from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. weekdays through Sept. 14 at the district’s tax office at 152 E. Rowson.