This is the second story in a three-part series in which Fort Bend Independent School District Bob Broxson spoke exclusively with FortBendNow about the district’s current financial crisis. To read the first story, click here.
Despite public comments to the contrary, outgoing Fort Bend Independent School District Board President Bob Broxson said the district’s 2007 $428 million bond has nothing to do with the district’s growing financial crisis.
The district has used money from the $98 million General Fund balance to cover projects that went over the allocated bond funding – which Broxson said is exactly what the General Fund balance is supposed to be used for.
Comparing the General Fund balance to a “rainy day” savings account, Broxson said its purpose is to fund one-time expenditures – not pay for reoccurring expenses such as salaries and the day-to-day cost of running the district.
It has been estimated that should the district continue to approve deficit budgets, the General Fund balance could run out by 2013. The board is currently in the process of trying to whittle away a current $18 million budget deficit while also tackling a projected $20 million-plus deficit budget for the next school year.
He also said that the bond committee played a significant role in reducing the amount of money allocated to certain projects, even to a point that the budget for some was unrealistic.
The district presented to the committee what Broxson called a “wish list” and the committee shaved it down by a couple of hundred million dollars.
“There were thing in there that needed to be replaced and they said they just weren’t going to put that in the bond,” he said.
“I think they were looking at a pretty healthy fund balance, and (thought we) could take money out of the fund balance to make up the balance,” said Broxson. “(For) High School 11, they reduced the amount they would consider putting on the bond referendum by millions of dollars lower than what you could do the project for.”
When the district signed the contract to build High School 11, the cost was higher than was approved in the bond, and Broxson said the board “knew that when we went into it.”
The district has been able to make up some of the project overages due to the recent economic downturn, which lowered the cost of construction.
“The point I am making is the bond committee had a tremendous amount of impact as to what they thought was realistic,” said Broxson. “We didn’t just dream these numbers up for the bond; there was a great deal of community input.
“What the people who are opposed to it now they are saying the bond committee was stacked and that couldn’t be further from the truth. There were people from all over the community on that bond committee.”
Last year, the district refinanced several bonds, saving about $10 million in interest, which Broxson said allowed the district not to have to raise the debt service tax rate higher than the 11 cents promised in 2007.
“My point is this budget deficit is totally separate from the bonds,” he said. “In my opinion as a business man, we are managing the bonds the best we can. The district is taking every opportunity to make sure they are financially sound. When we look at the maintenance and operation budgets, there are really very few places to look. It makes it very difficult to try to figure out what the answer is.”
11. March 2010 at 8:11 am
–I found these older related articles that seem to contradict some of Mr. Broxson’s claims in this interview series above. The first demonstrates votes that increased spending while facing the first of 3 budget deficits and the second discusses the conflict and finger pointing that began almost 2 years ago over the record bond debt that was pushed and passed by Mr Jenney and Charlie Howard supporters (developers and district vendors). It seems to counter much of what Broxson is claiming above:
FB Sun Covers First Ever FBISD Budget Deficit!
Fort Bend ISD approves proposed budget
By DIANE TEZENO
Published: 08.27.08
Fort Bend ISD board members made no modifications to the district’s proposed $477.5 budget despite opposition from several residents and a state official to various aspects of the 2008-09 budget.
Board members gave their “OK” to the budget despite a $9.9 million deficit, and also gave the green light to several major expenditure increases, including employee pay raises.
The approved budget includes a 3 percent pay increase on base salary for all district employees, bringing starting salaries for teachers to $44,000.
The newly approved budget also includes $5.1 million for additional staffing, $1.2 million in TASB proposed equity adjustments and $2.26 million in increases for vehicle fuel inflation, among other expenditures.
Prior to the budget’s approval, several speakers voiced opposition to aspects of the budget, including Texas State Rep. Charlie Howard. . .
. . . Board members listened to several other comments from the public on the proposed budget, including
former school board candidate and Fresno resident Rodrigo Carreon.
“Some of our staff here have been working 23 years and never got a raise,” said Carreon.
Carreon questioned why funds from the district were going to the state.
The Fresno resident recommended the district look at alternative fuels such as natural gas versus diesel to save on fuel expenses.
A member of the Fort Bend Employee Federation encouraged the board to improve pay increases for classified employees and teachers above TASB recommendations.
“Equity adjustments and pay increases won’t lift our employees above the poverty level,” said the federation member, echoing a sentiment shared by an earlier speaker.
Richmond resident, Chris Calvin, said he would like to see the board take a closer look at the fund balance.
“Why with all of this money can’t we balance the budget without a tax increase this year,” said Calvin, citing open record information showing the district with a $93.8 million fund balance.
Fort Bend resident Carlos Kane told board members that he did not want to see his property taxes go up.
He expressed strong opposition to board members for proposing the .02 cent tax increase and encouraged board members to remedy the budget deficit through monies in the fund balance rather than by increasing taxes on homeowners.
“I have no objection to teacher’s getting their raises, they should have gotten them a long time ago,” said Kane.
“What I have an objection to is the $100 million dollars that you all had stashed in a trust fund,” said Kane
AND>
FortBendNow: Bhuchar Issues Statement On FBISD Budget, Howard Criticism
In a statement issued late Friday afternoon, Fort Bend ISD Board President Sonal Bhuchar said “the record must be set straight” over the district’s recent decision to raise the district’s debt service tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year.
During a public hearing on the proposed budget and tax rate, State Rep. Charlie Howard (R-Sugar Land) criticized trustees for raising the tax rate when other public entities were either lowering or maintaining existing rates.
Howard’s remarks brought strong rebukes from trustees Steve Smelley and Bob Broxson. Smelley said he was “humiliated” by Howard’s statement, while Broxson suggested Howard did not support public education.
In a later statement to FortBendNow, Howard said he had not intended to insult trustees, but his goal in representing constituents was to see their property tax burden lowered. Howard also said he was addressing the board as a resident and taxpayer, and not in his role as a state representative.
In her statement, Bhuchar cited Howard’s remarks. She defended the board’s decision to raise the debt service tax rate, saying that voters approved the increase as a part of last year’s bond referendum…
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This is the same RECORD bond election that Howard and his edc PAC helped push. He then comes back to the district and complains when they have to increase taxes to begin to pay off this debt…it would seem now that Broxson is denying that these were the issues that have significantly contributed to the current 3rd consecutive budget crisis and he doesn’t even mention the “Global Taj Mahal” and the $30 million being held in reserve for that special project that apparently does not have community support.
10. March 2010 at 9:29 pm
Now this seems odd. First he claims we have a financial emergency created by the state while we sit on funding for a new science center at the central office apparently costing us 20-30 million. I guess I don’t get it. What kind of financial management is this? Looks like the kids are going to pay again for poor leadership!
10. March 2010 at 7:35 pm
santhony, Right on the nose about the RECORD bond passed.It is now 1.6 Billon
10. March 2010 at 3:06 pm
“Despite public comments to the contrary, outgoing Fort Bend Independent School District Board President Bob Broxson said the district’s 2007 $428 million bond has nothing to do with the district’s growing financial crisis.”–Over half of the bond committee was made up of GFBCEDC member company reps and Ed. Foundation members. The other half was the general public and all were selected and approved by the administration. As a matter of fact one “general public” member and another pastor both agreed they did not have enough information supplied independently to be making some of these decisions. One of them we know personally actually voted against it. I see several very misleading statements by Broxson on this RECORD bond debt that was pushed by Jenney and the EDC members. Most remember the ad that was purchased with developer money and Charlie Howard in one of the local majr papers stating we needed it to “increase our property values”. It sure increased the debt load and the debt service portion coming from the operations budget that does impact the teachers salaries and other campus based projects. If you google the releases of that time or attended the meetings as we did, you would remember that at the first tax hearing following the passage of the RECORD bond that the past BOT president and VP pointed the finger at Mr. Howard and stated, when he opposed the tax increase (one of several), that it had everything to do with the RECORD bond passed (the reason for the tax increase).
I know we can expect another one, but Mr. Broxson needs to at least get his facts straight before he hands these problems off to the next group of board members. Twi of which are hand selected once again by Jenney to run.