Amid growing concerns about the future of school finance, Lake Travis ISD board members passed an $81.9 million budget and $1.3159 property tax rate for the 2010-11 school year at their regular meeting Aug. 26.

That compares to the tax rate of $1.3359 per $100 of taxable property valuation and a total budget of $79.6 million adopted by the board last year.
LTISD’s maintenance and operations tax rate is set at $1.04 and debt service tax rate at $0.2759, for a total tax rate of $1.3159 per $100 of taxable property valuation.
For the average market value home of $384,278, this year’s school tax liability will be $3,755, a decrease of approximately $152.
LTISD anticipates sending approximately $29 million — or 47 cents of every M&O tax dollar collected in local property revenues — to the state through recapture, which is commonly known as Robin Hood.
Budget highlights include, on average, offering a 2 percent pay increase for teachers and support staff totaling $779,364, adding approximately 20 new teachers to accommodate an increase in student enrollment at a cost of $960,887; and decreasing the district’s general administrative costs by nearly 11 percent, or $264,104.
Of the neighboring districts whose budgets have salary increases this fiscal year, Dripping Springs and Round Rock ISDs also are implementing 2 percent raises for teachers and other staff members while Austin, Lago Vista and Marble Falls are giving 1 percent increases to teachers and no raises to other educational staff. Leander ISD is giving 1.7 percent raises to its teachers and 1.5 percent increases to other staff members, and Eanes ISD is upping its teaching and other staff members’ salaries by 1.25 percent.
“Our staff worked hard to streamline an already lean budget that we believe will allow us to continue to provide the levels of service that our students, parents and taxpayers have come to expect from an Exemplary district,” said LTISD Superintendent Dr. Rocky Kirk in a press release. “Developing a healthy and fiscally responsible budget proves more and more difficult each year as state aid remains static.”
As an indicator of what Johnny Hill, LTISD assistant superintendent for business and financial services, has described as a bleak future, he and other department heads will face the challenge of digging the district out of a projected $1.8 million deficit, which would lower the district’s fund balance to $20.2 million.
“Our goal is to do everything humanly possible without taking away from the classroom to get that down to a zero budget balance. If everything goes wrong, the budget is what the budget is, and that is a deficit of $1.8 million,” Hill said.
The 2010-11 budget is based on a low student growth scenario for this school year of 4.55 percent. Early attendance totals, however, put the district’s enrollment at 6,941, which is a 6.1 percent increase since June. It has also been impacted by lower total tax revenues in the wake of falling home values.
Enrollment numbers are critical to a district’s operating budget because it receives $6,179 per student in Weighted Average Daily Attendance for students with additional education needs despite increases in overall operating expenses.
“If you go out four or five years, it’s bleak because per kid you are spending more money than you are bringing in. Those costs are going to keep going up,” Hill said. “It’s not just our district, it’s every district [that is facing this]. It’s going to be a challenge.”
LTISD officials are working to maintain or improve district services without sacrificing its programs through budget cuts.
“The reason we are doing this [budget] to begin with is to try to provide a quality education for the kids,” Hill said. “Whenever we have to go in and shrink those budgets if we have to, we keep those [cuts] as far away from the programs we are offering the kid, because we know the programs we are offering the kids are successful. For us to come in and want to change that would be the furthest thing from our minds and our hearts.”
If realized, the projected increase in student enrollment would necessitate additional facilities, Kirk said.
Under a moderate-growth scenario, LTISD anticipates average increases of 450-500 students per year through 2019 and officials project a 726-student increase in 2020.
“Despite our sound financial management and healthy budget, we anticipate continued growth in student enrollment, and consequently, a need for additional facilities and the funds to operate those facilities,” he said. “Without significant intervention from the state, we must begin to look at other alternatives that will allow us to remain financially solvent.”
For the short term, district officials said they would continue to minimize the deficit through strict internal controls and other cost-saving measures, but they declined to comment on what these alternatives could be because they are still in the planning stages.
“We realize there’s needs in the future, but there’s a multitude of ways to accomplish those goals,” Hill said. “There are several different options we are discussing right now.”
As they looked toward the future, board and staff members addressed the present by making the third and final set of adjustments to its 2009-10 fiscal year budget.
Boosted by $450,000 in payroll contingencies and turnover, another $450,000 in utility savings and $254,800 in property tax collections, LTISD wrapped up the 2009-10 fiscal year with $819,800 in year-end adjustments that put it a quarter of a million dollars in the black.
The turnaround pleased several board members who were staring at a $569,800 deficit after the district’s failed 2-cent tax ratification election in November 2009.
“I just think this is very, very encouraging that we are able to show by diligent effort down the year that we have reduced our costs to our residents,” board member Mayo Davidson said.
If the 2-cent tax ratification had passed, the anticipated revenues would have generated $1.2 million that would have been exempt from Robin Hood provisions.
In November, Kirk said the election outcome would limit LTISD to a rollback tax rate of $1.04 that would drain its fund balance by 78 percent by fiscal year 2012-13.
School board President Jason Buddin credited Hill with continuing the progress the district made under Hill’s predecessor, Bob Hart.
“Johnny is carrying on where Bob Hart left off. He is keeping us in good shape,” Buddin said. “I’m real pleased and very happy with what they were able to do in not only balancing the budget but also adding to the fund balance. We don’t know if we are going to get any relief on the state or federal level, but I feel confident that we are going to be able to provide a quality education for our kids into the future.”