Fort Bend independent School District Board Of Trustees President Bob Broxson has placed the blame for the district’s budget crisis squarely on the shoulders of Texas legislators.
The district is struggling with their third deficit budget in a row, and looking to cut $18 million.
“It is not, as many would love to claim because this board has over spent, or wasted the taxpayers’ dollars,” said Broxson at the beginning of a recent budget meeting. “It is because our funding has not been sufficient to meet our needs, and we still have to live under the burden of millions of dollars of unfunded mandates from the state.”
Broxson said that funding from the state has been “frozen” at 2006 levels, while the student population has grown in a way that has resulted in the need for new campuses while other are not full.
“As a result, our costs have risen to such a level that they outstrip the dollars we receive from the state,” said Broxson. “This is a fact that should not be taken lightly. We have neighboring school districts that are not facing the same financial issues as us.”
Broxson also said that at a recent Grassroots session for Region 4 Texas Association of School Board members, a session dedicated to the formulation of an agenda for the 2011 legislative session, no legislators representing FBISD were present. District 27 Representative Dora Olivo sent a representative to the meeting, but was not present herself.
“Over a dozen state legislators spoke at this meeting, including Rob Eissler, Chairman of the House Education and Scott Hochberg, a ranking member of that same committee,” said Broxson. “The presentations by Representatives Hochberg and Eissler were troubling, particularly for districts like ours. They laid out the ‘hows’ of the development of the education funding process, eventually indicating that they really only met the needs of those districts that had “representation in the room.” That is a troubling statement for us, particularly in light of the fact that we are the seventh largest school district in this state. In a brief discussion with both representatives after their presentations, they indicated to me that the truth of the matter was that ‘leadership’ in the House was expecting for school districts to raise their own money and that we could expect no new funds from the state.”
Broxson said the state is effectively telling the district that the only way to return to former funding levels, the district will have to raise taxes, “an outcome that is highly unlikely since we would need an election to increase our tax rate. And in this economy, no one is looking for ways to increase our taxes.”
Broxson referred to a TASB study that was presented to the board several weeks ago, saying the study indicated that if the State would have kept funding stable, that the district would not be facing their current budget crisis.
“Unfortunately, the state legislature arbitrarily lowered our tax rates two years ago impacting our revenues significantly, and then in the most recent session passed a funding formula that put us into a very deep hole,” said Broxson.
Broxson added that budget discussions “are very difficult for all of us. Once we start down certain paths, we will not be able to turn back.”
He said he sent an e-mail to Eissler more than a week ago, but has not heard a reply.
“We as a Board continue to hope for a positive solution to appear, but that does not seem to be happening,” said Broxson, who recently announced he will not run for re-election May 8.
I like the idea of reducing non-personal spending like the county engaged in during their last budget cycle but I don’t think this board or supt. understands that. For example they continue to pay out $300-400,000 a year for a “character” newsletter. I’m sure if they placed the itemized budget online we could find a great deal more savings before attacking the teachers as one poster keeps suggesting.
Broxson may have the common sense to resign sparing himself from having to deal with the Ft Bend version of Amy Bishop. Unfortunately its why many who are qualified don’t serve.
I seem to remember Broxson discussing the possibility of a tax roll back election only last year. I wonder if they are going to push for that again?
a 25 cents decrease from $1.50/hundred to 1.25/hundred in ’07, followed by a 3.5 cents in ’08, then a 2 cents increase in ’09 does not seem to be 3 or 4 years of tax increases to me.
Well then you really should go to the budget sessions where they are already discussing this years increase and yes sport we are 3+ years since the last reduction. So if you do the Math you have 3 (with this years) and we are moving towards year 4.
Go figure….LOL
Pist, yes read the post below….
psst…read the post below….
A 3.5 cent, 2 cent increase and a 25 cent decrease sounds like a net decrease to me.
Only if you ignore the facts and attempt to twist them. $30+ million in new spending and the last 2 tax increases are not a decrease. Nor is the near 11% appraisal creep last year county-wide but you can keep pretending if you like. LOL
I know it can be hard to face facts but more than likely another increase is on the way again….
The school board approved Monday night a new rate of $1.305 per $100 assessed value. Last year, the district’s tax rate also rose by 2 cents from $1.25 in 2007.”
“Fort Bend ISD raises property tax rate
September 30, 2009 10:05 am Zen T.C. Zheng wrote:
Fort Bend school officials said the district’s 3½-cent property tax hike for next year will not fund anything other than what voters endorsed nearly two years ago.
The school board approved Monday night a new rate of $1.305 per $100 assessed value. Last year, the district’s tax rate also rose by 2 cents from $1.25 in 2007.”
Funny Sugarlandwatch how some just refuse to face facts. Just like they refuse to believe the $30 million dollar global taj mahal isn’t being paid for from bond monies moved from the “contingency” funds. It’s sad but very true.
Thanks for posting that the districts total bond debt has increased from 1.4 BILLION to nearly 1.7 BILLION dollars placing us well within the top 10 state-wide. It is also too bad much of the debt service portion comes out of the operations budget competing with teacher salaries, supplies and other campus based projects.
Will we ever learn and now we have a district vendor company owner running for a board seat. I guess when we snooze we lose.
some with a pedantic view insist there were tax increases the last 3 or 4 years when the Republican led State Legislature in 79th Regular Session mandated a reduction from $1.50/hundred to $1.25, a 17% decrease in school taxes.
Pist….read the post above.
b_tabor right on the money.
b_tabor you might agree on this to.The property taxes collect in Texas about 2/3 goes to the school dist across the state.If we decide to give it all to school dist they still say its not enough.
On top of it the bonds 1.7 Billon in bonds.Look for yourself http://www.brb.state.tx.us/lgs_search.aspx?action=isd
That is sad.
Now am glad that Bob Broxson is leaving so I can clap and not be throw out.
What MoCity said. And the tiny grey type doesn’t help any either
I agree with the comments about the new page, it is hard to use and I find myself NOT looking at it as often as I used to. Hard to follow for sure.
Just another guy’s thoughts.
Reminder; Texas is a Red Party Republican control state thats misleading and under funding public education(FBISD), an effecting Fort Bend! Vote to turn for Blue Party control state and local officials!
Blaming the legislature is a tired excuse. The last 3-4 years of property tax increase have all emanated from the bond election of 2007 but the district vendors don’t want that mentioned. They also don’t want it mentioned that the GSTC will primarily be funded by the 2007 bond when it wasn’t even in the original proposal. Guess which stellar citizens pushed this bond so hard and got support from this board? Yep our own legislature Charlie Howard and his developer boyz. He even bought ad space from his PAC to push it in the chron and we all followed orders. Less than a few months later when our taxes began to rise again and again, Mr Howard spoke against a BOT vote to raise them. How convenient when they were needed to service the debt portion he helped sponsor. How’s that for “conservative” values!
Off-topic post:
FBN – you guys should really consider going back to your former front page layout. This one is confusing, not user friendly, and the comment scroll is a terrible addition.
Just my opinion of course… I am sure there are other out there that just LOVE the new look and functionality. I guess you can’t please everyone all of the time, right?