Tax Ratification Election set for Saturday

GONZALES — Saturday is election day for the Gonzales Independent School District's Tax Ratification Election (TRE). The official language is quite cumbersome to understand, but GISD officials promise that taxes will not rise and the ordeal is basically a way to save a few dollars while switching around a couple of rates, or simply a “tax swap.”
Superintendent Dr. Kim Strozier says that residents can leave the pitchforks at home. GISD lowered its tax rate two full pennies last year and will be able to maintain that lower rate while swapping some more pennies.
“This TRE, if approved, will bring the district an estimated additional $250,000 for the Maintenance and Operations (M&O) fund over the same pennies of tax effort in the Interest and Sinking (I&S) fund,” she said.
If approved, GISD would join approximately 57 percent of Texas school districts that have initiated tax swaps. Many of these are to do with “wealth equalization” as mandated by the state legislature, where “property wealthy” districts like GISD are ordered to send tax dollars to “property poor” districts. This election is a way to maximize the amount of funding received from the state without raising local taxes.
By transferring the pennies to the M&O side, the district would be able to capture additional state funding without increasing the tax burden on local taxpayers simply because M&O pennies are weighed more heavily by the state than I&S pennies when the state's portion of funding is calculated. Without the TRE, the district would maintain the same total tax rate, but would not capture the additional monies from the state.
The state provides extremely limited assistance to districts for their I&S tax efforts. Because of that, it makes sense to move the same tax effort to the M&O side of the tax rate where the state will provide a significant amount of additional funding. However, because the district is still considered property wealthy by the state, once the M&O rate exceeds a certain point, the district would have to once again send local funds to the state. To keep recapture payments at bay, the district would only swap a portion of its I&S pennies.
State funding for public education is at an estimated 38 percent.
Bottom line is that, if approved, additional state dollars will come to GISD. The TRE has no effect on the total tax rate of $1.18 for 2018-19.
Voters will cast their ballots Saturday at the GISD Administrative Office at 1711 N. Sarah DeWitt Dr. from 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
Erik McCowan is a staff reporter at the Gonzales Inquirer. You can email him at news@gonzalesinquirer.com or erik.mccowan@gonzalesinquirer.com.