BRENHAM SCHOOL BOARD TO CONSIDER EFFICIENCY AUDIT FOR POSSIBLE TAX RATE ELECTION
The Brenham School Board will hold a special meeting on Tuesday to potentially take the next step in exploring a Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election (VATRE).
The board will act on selecting an auditor to conduct an efficiency audit for the district and authorize the signature of an audit engagement letter.
During the board’s most recent meeting on Wednesday, trustees were told that the efficiency audit, costing $15,000, is needed in order to further discuss the VATRE. The board is considering that path to improve teacher and staff salaries.
Chief Financial Officer Darrell St. Clair said on Wednesday that raising the district’s maintenance and operations (M&O) tax rate by 3 cents per $100 valuation, combined with new state revenue approved by legislators, could give the district an extra $2 million to use for pay raises and day-to-day operational expenses. Superintendent Clay Gillentine said taxpayers would not be negatively impacted, as November’s constitutional amendment election is expected to result in the passage of increased homestead exemptions.
The board will meet Tuesday at noon in the Brenham ISD Administration Office. The meeting will be livestreamed on Brenham ISD’s YouTube channel.
All of the new homes that are being built along Hwy 36 N should add a lot of tax money for the school district and all of the huge homes built through out the county most of them costing 1-3 million dollars should bring in a lot of tax money for the school district .Seems to me that our taxes should stay the same if not down not up.
Lots of people on here seem to think that if your appraisal goes up then your taxes go up. That is not how it works. The basic math is that if everybody’s appraisal doubles then the tax rate for no new revenue goes down by half. The appraisal only figures into your share of the total tax. The schools don’t get more money from higher appraisals. They get it by increasing their budget and the math is what it is. It’s real simple like that. Spend a dollar, tax a dollar. Get richer, pay more.
The hard part for the schools is spending the money they have well enough to convince voters to let them have more money when they didn’t have enough money in the first place to demonstrate good stewardship. Poverty finance does not win hearts and minds. That’s why you see people giving up on Brenham. But that’s short sighted. Or just greedy.
So I’m okay with this VATRE thing. Rusty columns at the high school don’t repair themselves for free and are the least of our worries anyway. Besides, that’s all just lipstick on a pig. Don’t get hung up on that.
There’s a lot that needs doing if you want to see real improvement. Classroom size matters more than anything. Keep it real simple. Brass tacks. You have to pay what you have to pay or you end up with a poorly disciplined crop of graduates that our employers or local law enforcement have to deal with. It all comes full circle. Better to spend money on the schoolhouse than the jailhouse and welfare and more kids born out of wedlock and everything else.
Property taxes are already out of control. A little bird told me that BISD is going to ask for a $34 million dollar bond election also. Will vote NO for both the Bond and the VATRE should it appear on the ballot.
My current property is over appraised by at least $100k. What a joke, the taxing authority sets the value of your property and then taxes you on their overly optimistic estimate. Time to get back to reality, citizens are not your never ending ATM.
BISD got a shameful C rating from the State. Doing a bad job and asking for more money doesn’t watch.
Little piggy politicians can’t keep seem to keep their greedy little fingers out of we the people’s pockets.
Maybe someone like DOGE needs to come into the ISD Central Office and all departments. Then check to see if all positions there are needed and terminate the ones not needed. All I read always is the Central Office is loaded with unnecessary position. Is the Maintenance Department doing scheduled maintenance or just putting a band-aid on things. Proper maintenance is very important. I am just saying. Leave the teachers alone and give them a big raise. I have worded for a company where we went 5 years without a raise and it helped the company get back to running properly from then on.
I must disagree with Supt. Gillentine’s statement that taxpayers will not be negatively impacted. Increased homestead exemptions will result in less taxes paid, and this proposed .03/$100 increase in tax is a reduction in tax savings. That is a negative impact on taxpayers.
So we property tax relief
And you want to grab it before we get it !