{"id":356881,"date":"2026-07-01T05:51:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/356881\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T05:51:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:51:18","slug":"hays-cisd-trustees-adopt-275m-surplus-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/356881\/","title":{"rendered":"Hays CISD trustees adopt $275M surplus budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHomeowners in Hays CISD<\/a> may see a decrease in their tax bill, according to documents presented at a June 29 meeting.<\/p>\n

The HCISD board of trustees approved the fiscal year 2026-27 budget at the meeting.<\/p>\n

The overview<\/p>\n

The general fund budget includes $275.42 million in expenditures and $287.68 million in revenues, resulting in a surplus budget.<\/p>\n

The largest expenditure by function is instruction, at $159.59 million. This is a $5.33 million decrease from last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Payroll is the largest part of our expenditures at 85%,” Chief Financial Officer Deborah Ottmers said.<\/p>\n

The general operating budget also includes:<\/p>\n

$28.02 million for plant maintenance, compared to $25.93 million for plant maintenance and operations in FY 2025-26$13.89 million for school leadership, compared to $14.9 million in FY 2025-26$12.98 million for pupil transportation, compared to $12.19 million in FY 2025-26$10.29 million in general administration, compared to $6.91 million in FY 2025-26\"chartThe largest revenue source for HCISD is state funding, coming in at $146.97 million.\"chartThe estimated increase in the fund balance is $12.25 million, resulting from cuts<\/a> to district spending. The district anticipates matching this number each year until 2031.<\/p>\n

The projections<\/p>\n

The proposed tax rate for FY 2026-27 is $1.1546 per $100 of valuation, which is unchanged from the previous rate. This includes a maintenance and operations rate of $0.6669 and an interest and sinking rate of $0.4877.<\/p>\n

\"chartM&O tax revenue funds daily operations, such as teacher salaries, and are subject to recapture<\/a>. I&S taxes are used to pay for bond<\/a> debt and are not subject to recapture. HCISD has not adjusted the I&S rate since FY 2021-22, according to district documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although the district is not proposing to change the tax rate, homeowners may pay less in school district taxes due to decreased home values. A homeowner of a property with a median taxable value of $182,110 could expect to pay roughly $2,103 in taxes. This is about an $80 decrease from FY 2025-26, when the median taxable homestead value was $189,550.<\/p>\n

The background<\/p>\n

HCISD asked voters to approve a higher tax rate<\/a> last November to support district operations following several years of dwindling fund balance. Voters rejected the increase<\/a>, and the district announced over $12 million in budget cuts<\/a> in March. The cuts include the loss of 125 positions and the suspension of 970 stipends, directly affecting more than 1,000 employees.<\/p>\n

\"chartSince 2021, HCISD has been pulling from the fund balance, which serves as the district\u2019s savings account, to maintain operations while waiting for increased state funding, Community Impact previously reported.<\/a> The fund balance has depleted to an estimated $20 million.<\/p>\n

The district will add the $12.25 million to the fund balance each year for the next five years. A district\u2019s fund balance should be able to cover up to three months of operational costs, according to HCISD officials. For HCISD, this number is approximately $65 million, according to Community Impact reporting<\/a>. By 2031, the district anticipates rebuilding the fund balance to $90.14 million, according to a previous district presentation.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"chartLooking ahead<\/p>\n

The HCISD board will approve the tax rate in August after receiving the maximum compressed rate<\/a> from the Texas Education Agency<\/a>.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Homeowners in Hays CISD may see a decrease in their tax bill, according to documents presented at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,2050,6244,23644,126839,25538],"class_list":["post-356881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-budget","tag-budget-cuts","tag-hays-cisd","tag-surplus-budget","tag-tax-rate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}