91ÊÓƵ³ÉÈËÍøÕ¾

One of the most complicated subjects we deal with is school finance. Without getting into golden and copper pennies, allotments, Tier I and Tier II funding, WADA, and other in-depth details of school finance, here is what we can easily say about the proposed bond package.  

Birdville ISD’s tax rate will not change because of the 2022 bond election.  

Did you know … ? 

Since 2019, 91ÊÓƵ³ÉÈËÍøÕ¾’s overall tax rate has decreased 17.4 cents. This has positioned the District to have additional capacity to sell bonds to address facility improvements now and in the future. Also, since 2014, the Board has approved prepayments of $29 million of bond principal saving taxpayers more than $20.2 million in future interest payments. 

About Public School Tax Rates 

Though we only see the overall tax rate on the tax statement each year, that rate represents a portion for operations and a portion for voter-approved bond debt. We will illustrate this with the buckets above. 

The first bucket is the Maintenance & Operations (M&O) budget, which funds daily costs and recurring expenditures such as teacher and staff salaries, supplies, insurance, and utilities. 

The second bucket is the Interest & Sinking (I&S) budget, also known as Debt Service, which is used to repay debt for capital improvements approved by voters through bond elections. Proceeds from a bond can be used for the construction and renovation of facilities, the acquisition of land, and the purchase of capital items such as equipment, technology, and transportation. By law, I&S funds cannot be used to pay M&O expenses which means that I&S funds cannot be used to pay teacher salaries or pay for rising costs for utilities and services. 

The efficient management of 91ÊÓƵ³ÉÈËÍøÕ¾’s existing bond debt over the last ten years has allowed the District to refinance more than $142.2 million of its outstanding bonds at a lower interest rate, saving taxpayers $18.4 million in future interest costs. The District has also prepaid approximately $29 million of its bonds prior to scheduled maturity, saving an additional $20.2 million in future interest payments for taxpayers. 91ÊÓƵ³ÉÈËÍøÕ¾ will continue to carefully monitor its bond debt and related interest rates to save taxpayers additional dollars in the future. 

The District repays its bonds based upon the useful life of the assets for which the District is financing. As an example, 91ÊÓƵ³ÉÈËÍøÕ¾ repays bonds issued for new school buildings over a 25-year period, but repays bonds issued for technology in five years or less. 

If voters approve all three propositions on Nov. 8, Birdville ISD will have the ability to sell additional voter-approved bonds with NO school tax rate increase due to bond prepayments and the refinancing of current bonds at lower interest rates. 

Next week, we will look at the ballot language.