AISD Bond (Austin, Bowie, Utopia: 2013, house, buy)

[AusParent]

You might be interested in this article:

https://www.texaspolicy.com/blog/det...-bond-proposal

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by AusParent

You might be interested in this article:

https://www.texaspolicy.com/blog/det...-bond-proposal

Seems really biased to me.


"The bond also includes items such as $6 million to improve the press box, concessions, and restrooms at House Park; $23 million for new athletic spaces (and some academic renovation) at a single school (Austin High—the new elementary schools in the bond cost $31-36 million each); and $5 million for “undesignated furniture improvements.” While such upgrades may be desirable, the wisdom of going into hundreds of millions of additional debt to finance these kinds of improvement is debatable."

That's not "hundreds of millions of additional debt" by my count. It's 34.


"Twenty additional cents is easily paid. But the taxable value of the average Austin home is not $100, it is comfortably over $300,000."

no **** Sherlock.


"The homeowner paid 29 percent more in school taxes—almost a third more—in 2017 than he paid in 2013."

Yeah, thank Robin Hood and the legislature's refusal to fix it.

[Longhorn Al]

This article is slanted.


It claims that athletics are not important and shouldn't be funded with this bond. Has this person seen the athletic facilities at Austin High or Bowie? I have. There are hundreds of kids stuffed into undersized locker rooms and undersized gyms/weight rooms. Some will say, "It's not important. Don't fund it. Only fund academics." Guess what? Kids are not going to stop participating in Athletics just because it's not funded properly. What will happen is they will continue to participate, but do so with inadequate facilities, which can become dangerous.


This article complains that it's an All-or-Nothing bond. AISD tried it the other way last time, and it didn't work. They witnessed other piecemeal bonds get shot down while seeing other ISDs in the area pass bonds that were all-encompassing. It was a sound strategy.


This article says to just redraw the attendance zones to address capacity issues. Does the writer live in some Utopia? Good luck with that. Drastically changing the zones will result in a revolt.


The writer complains that the majority of the money is being spent on the schools and areas where the most people are moving to. Would they rather spend that money on schools in areas that are extremely under-enrolled and nobody wants to live in? Have a nice, shiny new school in a part of town with no kids? Would they rather be bussing kids all over town to fill up the schools that should be outright closed? The city is changing. The district is changing.


And AISD is not being sneaky when they say the tax rate won't increase. It's a true statement that anyone with any sense can understand. AISD is using conservative projections on the land valuation increases. The trends show more of an increase than AISD is relying on. They were able to lower their rate after the last bond because of it. Austin has the lowest rate of all the ISDs around Austin, and we pay more back to the State than any other district in Texas.


If Austin could keep the money they're sending the State this year and next, it would pay for almost all of this $1 billion bond. But Robin Hood necessitates we pass bonds in order to keep 100% of the money and spend it on our kids instead of kids in some other town.


When will anything get done in the writer's world? Do we keep kicking the can down the road as the schools crumble? One elementary was forced to close last school year because it was dangerous to the kids. That will eventually start happening to other schools if nothing is done. The writer would say, "just pay for the necessary maintenance." Band-aids only go so far. Eventually real work needs to be done.

[ashbeeigh]

The Austin ISD bond website is actually pretty helpful. You can search campus by campus to see what improvements look like from the "best" on the westside to the "worst" on the south east side. https://www.austinisd.org/bond

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by Longhorn Al

If Austin could keep the money they're sending the State this year and next, it would pay for almost all of this $1 billion bond. But Robin Hood necessitates we pass bonds in order to keep 100% of the money and spend it on our kids instead of kids in some other town.

I have recently heard this claim that bond money is not subject to recapture, which if true would be a huge cost savings for AISD taxpayers. Still why did the mayor introduce a risky tax swap scheme if instead a simple bond would do the trick?

[Trainwreck20]

Originally Posted by verybadgnome

I have recently heard this claim that bond money is not subject to recapture, which if true would be a huge cost savings for AISD taxpayers. Still why did the mayor introduce a risky tax swap scheme if instead a simple bond would do the trick?

People vote down bonds (none of them are ever simple); the tax swap, if done 'carefully', would not require a vote at all.

The big bond a few years ago that got voted down included a ton of maintenance items that normally would be normal taxes. The intent was to avoid RH, but instead the bond lost in part due to the perception it was a bunch of fluff.

[Longhorn Al]

Originally Posted by verybadgnome

I have recently heard this claim that bond money is not subject to recapture, which if true would be a huge cost savings for AISD taxpayers. Still why did the mayor introduce a risky tax swap scheme if instead a simple bond would do the trick?

If AISD lowered their tax rate to nothing, and tried to fund everything with bonds, it would fail. Voters are balking at a $1 billion bond. Can you imagine having to pass huge bonds every year just to run the district and pay the teachers?


People would want to eat their cake and have it too. No AISD tax and vote No on the bonds.

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by Longhorn Al

If AISD lowered their tax rate to nothing, and tried to fund everything with bonds, it would fail. Voters are balking at a $1 billion bond. Can you imagine having to pass huge bonds every year just to run the district and pay the teachers?


People would want to eat their cake and have it too. No AISD tax and vote No on the bonds.

This is not what they are proposing, but obviously an extreme exaggeration. If 1/3 is usually subject to recapture and the bond is $1B, then this could potentially save over $300M. Sounds like a win for us. I am still unsure if the entirety of the $1B is exempt or just portions depending on its use, e.g facilities, salaries, operations, etc.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by Longhorn Al

If AISD lowered their tax rate to nothing, and tried to fund everything with bonds, it would fail. Voters are balking at a $1 billion bond. Can you imagine having to pass huge bonds every year just to run the district and pay the teachers?


People would want to eat their cake and have it too. No AISD tax and vote No on the bonds.

thats because we know that they will waste this money and we will still be paying increased taxes. If they guaranteed that total taxes would drop or even stay the same, then I would buy into it.

[Trainwreck20]

The entire bond is exempt, I believe. Recapture is approaching 50 percent and will be there in a year or two. There may be limits to what you can put in a bond, though (salaries, etc), I am not sure.