<\/p>\n
A sign points voters into the polling place at Austin City Hall as early voting begins for the March primary elections in Texas, Feb. 17, 2026. Election Day is Nov. 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Five Central Texas school districts will ask voters in November to increase their school property tax rates to pay for teacher raises and cover ballooning costs.<\/p>\n
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The ask from five school systems\u00a0\u2014 Bastrop, Del Valle, Georgetown, Leander and Round Rock independent school districts\u00a0\u2014 comes as\u00a0public schools across the state grapple with budget challenges and increasing costs, forcing many districts to cut\u00a0budgets, staff and programming or close schools.<\/p>\n
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Manor ISD has also called a $400 million bond election to raise money for\u00a0school and facilities renovations.<\/p>\n
School districts must set tax rates at or below a number provided by the state, calculated based on property value growth. If a school district wants to raise the tax rate above that threshold\u00a0\u2014 and bring in more local property tax revenue\u00a0\u2014 the school board must ask for voter approval.<\/p>\n
Tax rate elections, which raise new money\u00a0for a district\u2019s day-to-day operations,\u00a0differ from bond elections, which typically fund large\u00a0capital purchases like school buses, technology or new buildings.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Early voting begins Oct. 19. Election Day is Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
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Bastrop ISD<\/p>\n
Officials with Bastrop ISD are asking voters to increase the tax rate from $1.0679 to $1.0809 per $100 of property value, which would raise another $6 million\u00a0annually.<\/p>\n
Without the tax rate increase, the district\u2019s rate would have fallen to $1.0509 because of state-approved increases to the homestead exemption and declining property values.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A resident with an average-value home worth\u00a0$378,000 would pay an extra $72 annually if voters approve the proposed tax rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In Bastrop ISD, officials hope to use the extra $6 million to increase staff salaries and pay for campus police officers.\u00a0Under House Bill 3, passed in 2023, districts must staff an armed officer or guard on every campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe low-hanging fruit has long since been picked,\u201d CFO Mike White said of budget cuts during a board meeting. \u201cAt this point, it\u2019s running pretty lean. Most of it is staff.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Del Valle ISD<\/p>\n
Del Valle ISD\u2019s school board has also called on voters to approve more funding, increasing the district\u2019s property tax rate from 94 cents to $1.03 per $100 of property value.<\/p>\n
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A 9-cent increase would bring an additional $13.9 million to the district. District officials expect they would use the funds for a 3% raise for professional staff, a 5% raise for hourly staff and staff salaries at the district\u2019s new high school, which opens in 2028 in Whisper Valley south of Manor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Owners of the average Del Valle home worth $314,376 would pay another $9.14 in school property taxes annually, according to the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cLess than $10 a year to help us pay salaries, increase salaries,\u201d Board Vice President Susanna Ledesma Woody said during a meeting. \u201cThat\u2019s pretty darn awesome.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Georgetown ISD<\/p>\n
Officials in Georgetown ISD\u00a0hope to raise\u00a0the property tax rate from $1.0506 per $100 of property value to $1.1106, generating $8.4 million annually. The extra funding would increase teachers’ salaries by 3.5% to 4% and other staff salaries by 3%.<\/p>\n
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Without the tax rate increase, Georgetown ISD officials would need to increase class sizes, reduce staff or cut back on student\u00a0activities and offerings to provide a staff raise, according to the district.<\/p>\n
The average homeowner with a home worth $444,465 would pay an additional $7.97 annually on their property tax bill. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe board has kind of held out and done everything they could up to this point to generate the revenue and to cut expenses,\u201d CFO Clay Goehring said during a board meeting. \u201cMany other districts have gone the (tax rate increase)\u00a0route or adopted a deficit budget.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leander ISD<\/p>\n
Leander ISD administrators are asking voters to increase the district\u2019s property tax rate by 3 cents, from $1.0869 to $1.1169 per $100 of property value.\u00a0If approved, the increase would raise an additional $6.7 million for the district to stave off future budget cuts and give staff a one-time bonus.\u00a0Officials didn\u2019t specify how much the bonus would be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ve cut costs,\u201d Board President Anna Smith said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019ve made hard decisions. And we\u2019re still facing a financial challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district has cut about $26 million over two years.<\/p>\n
Although the higher tax rate would raise about $12.1 million, Leander ISD would send about $5.4 million to the state as part of the recapture or \u201cRobin Hood\u201d program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A tax rate increase would cost homeowners\u00a0with an average-value home worth $460,292\u00a0an extra $27.56 annually.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Round Rock ISD<\/p>\n
Round Rock ISD officials hope to generate an additional $19 million\u00a0if voters approve a higher tax rate.<\/p>\n
District officials asked residents to approve a 5.5-cent increase, boosting the tax rate from 89.31 cents to 94.84 cents\u00a0per $100 of property value.<\/p>\n
Round Rock ISD officials hope to give\u00a0staff a 2% raise and increase the district\u2019s minimum pay rate to $17 per hour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cAll this is pretty much going back to benefit our staff directly,\u201d Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If voters approve the district\u2019s proposed tax rate, the owner of a $500,000 home, which is the average value in the area,\u00a0would pay an additional $276 annually in property taxes next year, according to the district.<\/p>\n
Manor ISD<\/p>\n
Manor ISD\u00a0trustees have called a $400 million bond, which district officials have said would not\u00a0increase what the average homeowner\u00a0pays in taxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The district is asking voters to approve two separate measures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The largest proposal, dubbed Proposition A,\u00a0worth $391.5 million, would pay for campus renovations and additional classrooms at multiple campuses. It would also fund additions for Manor New Tech and Manor high schools.<\/p>\n
Proposition B, valued at $8.5 million,\u00a0would purchase new devices for staff and students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to provide safe, functional and future-ready learning environments for our students and staff and Bond 2026 is the next step,\u201d Superintendent Robert Sormani said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Texas law requires districts to break up bond packages into separate propositions if officials ask for work around stadiums, fine arts facilities, technology updates or other similar proposals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although the bond would increase the tax rate by 0.0385 cents if both measures are approved, the average homeowner with a $331,764 home would see their monthly bill decrease by $9.56 because of declining property values.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sign points voters into the polling place at Austin City Hall as early voting begins for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-412623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412623","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=412623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}