(Seguin) — The Seguin ISD is asking voters to weigh in on a proposed tax-rate change that would keep the district’s overall tax rate flat while allowing the district to maximize additional state funding.
The school board unanimously approved calling for a Voter Approved Tax Ratification Election, or VATRE, during a recent meeting.
The fall election will allow voters to decide whether the district can make the proposed adjustment to its maintenance and operations tax rate while keeping the overall tax rate at $1.0828 per $100 valuation.
Seguin ISD Superintendent Dr. Jack Lee says the election is designed to gain more funding rather than having to go through taxpayers.
“What that means is that the board has adopted a tax rate that requires voter approval. The interesting piece about it is that the tax rate that we have adopted is identical to the total tax rate that we have adopted the past two years. So this would be the third year in a row that we have done that, but essentially by maximizing our M&O, which is our operational funding tax rate — it generates about 2.4 more million dollars for the district in an ongoing process, primarily through the state having to kick in funding on its side for the public schools,” said Lee.
The district’s total tax rate for the 2026-27 school year is $1.0828 per $100 of property valuation, the same total rate adopted for the previous school year.
District officials say the proposed amount would increase the maintenance and operations, or M&O, rate from $0.6778 to $0.6978 while reducing the interest and sinking, or debt-service, rate from $0.405 to $0.385.
If approved by voters, the VATRE is expected to generate about $2.4 million annually beginning with the 2027 school year. About $942,000 would come from local tax revenue, while approximately $1.5 million would come through additional state funding.
Lee says the district is encouraging residents to learn more about how this school funding system works.
“I think that the biggest piece would be to be as educated as possible. School funding is a complicated mess of funding that public schools go through. The state’s intentional about it being complicated. I think if you asked the elected legislatures, they would tell you the same thing because it’s trying to be as equitable as possible. The reality of it is, is that school districts are funded less today than they have been funded in the past. And so the result is that schools have to make some pretty hard decisions on what it is to do,” said Lee.
Lee says Seguin ISD’s financial planning and the district’s debt-service rate played an important role in allowing the district to pursue the VATRE without increasing the overall tax rate.
“We’re thankful here in Seguin ISD for the fact that we do have a school board that is diligent about overseeing and watching the financials of the district. And so part of what is allowing us to move forward with this voter approved tax ratification election, with it being a 0 tax rate impact election in overall tax rates, is because we have been intentional with our debt service rate. And so we’re lowering our debt service rate by a couple of pennies and the voter approved tax ratification election is us increasing it by a couple of pennies on the M&O side for operations. And so it’s a 0 tax rate impact for our folks,” said Lee.
Lee says the additional funding is all about prioritizing student achievement and maintaining services that directly affect students.
“The other thing that we know for certain is that our community and our district wants to see a student achievement at the priority. In order for us to continue doing student achievement, and making it a priority with smaller class sizes, teacher pay increases, those types of things. The only way that we can continue doing that is if we have the funds to be able to do it. And so that is what we’re looking. We’re trying to maximize as much as possible the funding that we get from the state,” said Lee.
Again, Lee says the district will provide additional information about the VATRE as the election approaches in November..
The upcoming election will allow voters to decide whether the district can make the proposed adjustment to its maintenance and operations tax rate while keeping the overall tax rate at $1.0828 per $100 valuation.