Pearland and Friendswood ISD seeking VATRE to help close budget shortfalls

Published: Tue, 10/17/23

Pearland and Friendswood ISD seeking VATRE to help close budget shortfalls

Higher pay for teachers, including this Pearland ISD elementary school teacher, is part of the plan if voters pass a voter-approval tax rate election for both PISD and Friendswood ISD. It would also mean less savings on tax bills for property owners but would allow the district to forgo potential cuts to programming.
(Courtesy Pearland ISD)

Community Impact
By James T. Norman
Updated 11:43 AM Oct 16, 2023 CDT

Friendswood ISD and Pearland ISD are facing shortfalls of $3.65 million and $12.7 million in their respective budgets, and officials seek voters’ help to close the gap.

The overview

Both districts are set to have voter-approval tax rate elections, or VATREs, on Nov. 7, which could add millions of dollars to each district’s budget. If voters approve the VATREs, the additional property tax revenue will close much of the expected shortfalls and bring in more money for day-to-day operations.

They will also allow both districts to give additional raises to teachers and employees, but that means less savings on property owners’ tax bills.

“We love celebrating success, but success is not free,” PISD Superintendent Larry Berger said at a June meeting.

If voters reject the measures, district officials will have to look for other ways to shore up their budgets, which could mean cuts to a variety of programs, officials said.

Across Texas, school districts are wrestling with rising costs tied to inflation that, in some estimations, are up 18% in the past couple of years, Berger said.

The state not increasing the amount of money given to school districts for each enrolled student, which has sat at $6,160 since 2019, has also played a role in both districts’ budgets coming up short, Berger and FISD Superintendent Thad Roher said.

“I had a lot of hopes that our legislative body would do what they said they were going to do,” PISD trustee Crystal Carbone said. “We need the state to fill the gaps.”

Roher said typically FISD plans for “some inflationary factors,” but with both districts’ student populations staying stagnant, budgets are tighter than normal.

“FISD runs tight anyways,” Roher said. “We did away with several positions and absorbed things we could, but it doesn’t help you cut the budget.”

The options

If the VATREs are approved, it would give both districts more flexibility in future months as they contemplate employee raises. Those shortfalls for fiscal year 2023-24 budgets, depending on later action after November’s election, could look like:

A $3.9 million total shortfall for PISD after new teacher raises
A $2.45 million total shortfall for FISD after new teacher raises

FISD has budgeted for the potential changes while PISD did not in its final budget, which was approved in June, leading to different final numbers.

Without the VATRE, both districts will have to consider programming cuts and letting some positions go unfilled, they said. More than 80% of both FISD and PISD’s budgets are spent on personnel.

“Long term, we cannot continue to have a budget deficit of $12 million,” Berger said. “If VATRE doesn’t pass, we’ll have to make some tough decisions.”

Also of note

Both school districts have tied further teacher and employee raises to the results of either the VATRE or state action.

PISD’s board of trustees in June approved a 2% pay increase for all employees and teachers. Later that same month, trustees approved a second potential raise tied to either state action or the VATRE. That raise could be up to:

2% for teachers
2% for most other staff and equity adjustments
1% for administrators

FISD trustees in July approved a 1.5% increase for all employees. That was paired with a one-time conditional 2% increase for teachers and nonteacher professionals, which will depend on state action or if the VATRE passes, Roher said.

“It all ties back to us being able to give teachers that incentive to keep teaching our students,” Carbone said.

Looking ahead

The ballot language can be confusing, Berger and Carbone said, as it implies an increase despite being an overall decrease from last year. The ballot will include a “for” and “against” option, with the languages for each district reading as follows:

Ratifying the ad valorem tax rate of $1.08 in Friendswood Independent School District for the current year, a rate that will result in an increase of -13.46 percent in maintenance and operations tax revenue for the district for the current year as compared to the preceding year, which is an additional -$3,822,337
Ratifying the ad valorem tax rate of $1.1373 in the Pearland Independent School District for the current year, a rate that will result in an increase of -11.29 percent in maintenance and operations tax revenue for the district for the current year as compared to the preceding year, which is an additional -$9,390,248.

Broken down, each option means:

FISD voters will vote for or against tax rate of $1.08 per $100 valuation. If approved it will bring in $1.2 million.
PISD voters will vote for or against a tax rate of $1.1373 per $100 valuation. If approved it will bring in $11.2 million.

In FISD without the VATRE, the tax rate would be $1.0224. The VATRE tax rate is $0.1294 down from last year’s rate. In PISD without the VATRE, the tax rate would be $1.0473. The VATRE tax rate is $0.1654 down from last year’s rate.

By James T. Norman - James joined Community Impact in June 2023 and covers public education and higher education in Pearland, Friendswood and the Bay Area. Before joining the team he worked for several newspapers in both Texas and Illinois. Since graduating from the University of North Texas in 2018, James has covered more than a dozen communities and school districts, and three counties. When he’s not at your local meeting, he can be found reading history books, trying to make music, learning Spanish and podcasting about football.

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