Spring ISD Calls Prop A a 2-Cent Increase. The Real Choice Is 5 Cents.

Spring ISD voters will find Proposition A near the end of a long Nov. 3 ballot, and the district has been telling them it is a 2-cent tax rate increase worth about $22 a year on an average home. That is true as far as it goes. But it is not the whole comparison, and the ballot itself will not help much.

What is on the ballot

The Spring ISD Board of Trustees voted unanimously on Aug. 17 to call what the district calls a local funding election and what Texas law calls a voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, according to the district's Prop A website. Early voting runs Oct. 19 through Oct. 30 at any Harris County voting location, and polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, according to the district's announcement.

As printed on the Harris County sample ballot, the measure opens with the words "THIS IS A TAX INCREASE," according to The Gist's copy of the official ballot language. It then asks voters to ratify a rate of $1.1569 per $100 of value, "a rate that will result in an increase of 0 percent in maintenance and operations tax revenue for the district for the current year as compared to the preceding year, which is an additional $0."

A tax increase that raises $0 is the kind of sentence that makes voters suspicious. The district itself concedes the wording "is required by Texas law and can be difficult to understand."

Two comparisons, both from the district

Start with last year. Spring ISD's total rate was $1.1369: 71.69 cents for maintenance and operations, the money that pays salaries and runs schools, and 42 cents for debt service on bonds, according to the district's tax calculator on its Prop A site. If Prop A passes, the total becomes $1.1569, made up of the same 71.69 cents for operations and 44 cents for debt service. That is the 2-cent increase the district advertises. Notice where those 2 cents land: on the debt side, not the operating side the election is about.

Now the other comparison. If voters reject Prop A, the district says, the total rate would fall to $1.1069, because 5 cents in so-called "disaster pennies" that had been part of the operating rate expire. Operations would drop to 66.69 cents, and debt service would still be 44 cents.

So the real choice in front of voters is not last year's rate against this year's. It is $1.1069 against $1.1569. That is a 5-cent difference, all of it on the operating side. The district's August announcement said as much: "The 5-cent increase would equal approximately $55 per year on a $250,000 home, before accounting for applicable exemptions."

For a homesteaded house, the gap is smaller. Texas school districts must exempt $140,000 of a homestead's value, according to the Texas Comptroller. On the district's average home value of $248,315, that leaves about $108,315 taxable. By Dock Line's calculation from the district's figures, 2 cents on that is about $22 a year, which matches the district's number, and 5 cents is about $54 a year. The $54 figure is ours, not the district's. Neither number is large. But voters deserve to know which comparison they are making.

Homeowners 65 and older, or with a disability homestead exemption, are generally protected by a school tax ceiling, so Prop A would not raise their school taxes unless they have made significant improvements, the district says.

What the money buys

The district estimates Prop A would bring in $15.5 million a year: $5.6 million in new local revenue and $9.9 million in state money that a higher local rate unlocks. It says the money would go to teacher and staff pay and to keeping current and planned student programs, with any remainder easing pressure from inflation, health care, utilities and safety mandates. It says Prop A creates no new debt and would not fund construction.

The district also says it faces a deficit "despite intentional budget reductions, conservative spending and fiscal responsibility." It has not put a dollar figure on that deficit on its Prop A site, and voters weighing a tax question would be within their rights to ask for one.

Superintendent Kregg Cuellar told KPRC 2 that the decision belongs to voters. "It's up to every voter that they have the right to make a decision, you know, for or against," Cuellar said. "It's just our job to make sure that we're providing you with the most transparent and factual information of impact."

Why it matters

The honest way to explain this election is to put both comparisons on the table. A "2-cent" pitch measured against a rate that is going away anyway undersells what a yes vote does. A "$0" ballot line undersells it even more.

None of that settles whether Spring ISD needs the money. Good teachers cost money, and the state's school finance formulas reward districts that raise their own rates. Voters can reasonably land on either side. They just should not have to do the district's arithmetic on a napkin to know what they are voting for.

Taxpayers elsewhere in the region are watching their own bills. Dock Line has broken down what Harris County's new tax rate adds and who pays when Texas takes over a school district.

Hero photo: Plares-springisd / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.