DS bond package passed... (Austin, Spring: 2015, loans, custom home)

[iamwayne]

The Dripping Springs bond package passed. Since Sawyer Ranch Road is a 2 lane street and 40mph, imagine the traffic. Unless they expand the road to a 4 lane street with two left turns. A cluster of an area to put 2 schools?

92,000,000 / 10,000 tax payers (random number of households I pulled out of my head) = 9,200 per household * 2 after interest = 18,400 total cost per household?

please correct me if I'm wrong with my numbers.

[hts]

Congrats to the residents of DS for passing this school bond (more than I can say for Eanes ISD, lol).

Your math is a just a wee bit off, lol (from the DSISD bond site):

If the bond election passes, the estimated maximum tax impact of this bond is anticipated to be a $0.05 increase to the I&S portion, resulting in a total tax rate of $1.54. For a home value of $100,000, this represents an increase of approximately $4.17 per month.

I'm moving to DS at the end of this month and couldn't be happier!!

[kylerboys]

I think the traffic will be ok. The middle school and Elementry school will start at different times. That will help a lot. Plus almost all of the traffic will be just for the schools unlike it is now on 290 going through town.

[Reggieray]

We are very happy that it passed. Especially with a couple little ones who now won't have to be bussed miles away to dripping Springs. Does anyone know the time table in both school? Hoping the elementary will be built by the time my 2 year old makes it to kinder.

[hts]

When would new schools open?
If the bond referendum is passed, the bonds would be sold and design of the elementary and middle school facilities would begin this summer. Construction would be planned to start in 2015 with an estimated completion for the 2017-18 school year.

There's a web site for the DSISD bond with tons of info here:

Dripping Springs ISD Bond Election | Home

This bond will only serve to help our kids and community, as well as our property values. I for one think that DS is one of the best places in the Austin metro to raise a family and also has a chance at decent appreciation over the next 5-10 years given the local growth and relative affordability (one can still find/build a nice custom home on an acre for a reasonable price).

In the most recent (2014) US News rankings of high schools, for the public (non-charter) high schools, this is how the metro Austin schools ranked in the top 1,000 nationally played out:

#157 Westwood
#172 Weslake
#347 Vandegrift
#466 Dripping Springs
#516 Anderson
#596 Cedar Park
#698 McCallum
#805 Lake Travis
#824 McNeil
#854 Leander

[iamwayne]

If I use the calculator on Dripping Springs ISD Bond Election | Tax Information and I don't really understand.

Will only residents of *Dripping Springs* pay for this or will all of Hays County pay for it?


I typed in: $75,000,000,000 for total tax value
and get 3.125million per year in taxes

This will pay off the bon in 30 years without any interest rate charged.


Now if I use census data:
Hays County QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau

92,000,000 / 64,333 total housing units in 2010 = $1430 per housing unit in taxes to pay off without interest / 30 years = around $48 per year per household

Now if it's only within school district households that pay for the bond package, the numbers go way up...

92,000,000 / 20,000 total housing units (another made up number 1/3ish of total in hays county) = $4600 per housing unit in taxes to pay off without interest / 30 years = around $153 per year per household

or

92,000,000 / 10,000 total housing units (another made up number I don't know the total number of households paying off this debt) = $9200 per housing unit in taxes to pay off without interest / 30 years = around $306 per year per household

So who pays for the bond? People in the school district area of the whole county?

[scm53]

Originally Posted by iamwayne

ISo who pays for the bond? People in the school district area of the whole county?

Taxpayers in the district. That's what the "I" in ISD stands for.

[RoadWarrior12]

10,000 housing units isn't that far off for all of the DSISD tax base. Roughly 5K students, so that seems about right. Maybe 12-15K max?

It's a hefty tab to pick up, but cheaper than private school.

[hts]

I still don't get your math. On my house (the one I'm building with a tax value of approx $500k), it appears that the impact of this bond passing will be approx. $20/mth (less than $250/year):

Dripping Springs ISD Bond Election | Tax Information

[hoffdano]

The OP needs to remember that bonds are loans with an IOU. The bonds will have varying terms, probably between 10 and 20 years. The smaller portion ("interest and sinking") of school property taxes are used to repay the bonds. Over the lifetime of the bonds the cost per taxpayer will be a more interesting number than $20/yr.