When my husband and I bought our house, we very purposefully chose one that did not sit in Austin ISD. Granted, property-tax-wise, very few choices are really awesome these days, but we figured Round Rock and Pflugerville were infinitely better options in Travis County than AISD. Seeing the Statesman this morning, I am confident we chose wisely.
Austin ISD is planning to raise the property tax rate, pending voter approval, by 3.9 cents. In other words, the budget is growing, and they believe they can justify asking taxpayers for more money.
Wait, didn't AISD actually see one of its schools close this last year due to poor performance? Why exactly should voters give them more money, when it's clear that money isn't the problem?
Of course, the district is claiming that the majority of the new money in the budget is for teacher pay raises. Which makes sense, I suppose - in such a district, you'd need to pay your teachers more just to keep them from fleeing for higher ground, right? Round Rock ISD is asking for $294 million in new bond money this fall, for new facilities. The board of trustees is claiming that they need this because of the growth in RRISD.
One has to think that if Austin ISD continues to raise property taxes on citizens there, Round Rock ISD will begin taking even more overflow as Austin residents are priced out of their homes. And then RRISD taxpayers will be priced out of their homes, and so on. Until we're all living in Bell County and commuting to Austin.
(crossposted at Blue Dot Blues)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment