This year, SBISD estimates our taxpayers will write checks totaling an additional $29 million in taxes. At the same time, the district anticipates a recapture (Robin Hood) payment of $66 million this year, or nearly 17 percent of your locally generated tax revenue. That means a taxpayer who owns a home valued at $500,000 will pay $889 in recapture to the State.
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Recapture dollars go into the State’s public education fund, freeing up state dollars for spending elsewhere.
Effectively, the legislature uses your tax dollars to reduce the amount it would otherwise contribute to public education from other sources. Conversely, while local taxpayers will pay $305 million to SBISD this year, SBISD will receive only $17.5 million in State funding.
Yes, you read that correctly – in essence, SBISD will send three times more funds to the state this year ($66 million) than it will receive in state funding ($17.5 million).
We feel it is misleading for local taxpayers to write checks to our local school district when the majority of the funds attributable to value growth actually benefit the bottom line of the State’s budget. Next year, SBISD is forecast to pay $91 million in recapture. That’s nearly 22 percent of locally generated revenue, and it’s unsustainable.The Texas Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that while the state’s school finance system meets minimum constitutional requirements, it has “immense room for improvement.” The Court stated that Texas schoolchildren deserve “transformational, top-to-bottom reforms that amount to more than Band-Aid on top of Band-Aid.”
SBISD agrees the Legislature must fix the school finance system, which puts SBISD at a competitive disadvantage relative to surrounding districts. We need reform that reverses the increasing flow of local taxpayer dollars to the State budget.
Our SBISD taxpayers continue to have the second lowest tax burden of any school district in the area. SBISD is one of only nine area districts that offers the 20 percent Local Option Homestead Exemption. To schedule a presentation for your school, faith community or organization contact us at: schoolfinance@springbranchisd.com
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