Dripping Springs ISD approves $148.9M total budget

DRIPPING SPRINGS — The total budget of $148.9 million was unanimously approved by the Dripping Springs ISD Board of Trustees on June 26.

According to the budget summary documents, the district is expected to remain in recapture status — which allows the state of Texas to remove local property tax dollars from public school districts — during the 2023-24 school year. Recapture is projected to be approximately $33 million, which is an increase of just over $10 million from 2022-23.

DSISD’s proposed budget for the 2023-24 school year, totaling $148,910,444 in expenditures, is broken down into three main funds: general fund at $122,829,129, food service/child nutrition fund at $4,734,356 and debt service at $21,346,959.

In the general fund, 61% (or 83% excluding recapture) is allotted for payroll for more than 1,000 employees. The board also approved a 3% salary increase for all staff, bus driver pay of $30 per hour, child nutrition worker pay of $18 per hour, custodial pay of $16 per hour, the addition of 36 full-time employees, funding for seven school resource officers on campuses and an increase in employer healthcare contributions to $330 per month.

In order to adopt the 2023-24 budget, the budgeted tax rate for the general operating fund is $0.9327 and the budgeted debt service tax rate is $0.3500. The district’s total budgeted tax rate for 2023‐24 is $1.2827 compared to $1.2929 for the 2022 tax year, which is an overall decrease of $0.0102. Because the district will not receive final certified taxable assessed property values from the appraisal district until the end of July, as well as the legislative unknowns, the budget is built on estimated taxable values and estimated tax rates, according to budget summary documents.

“We published a [Maximum Compressed Tax Rate] of what we thought the max would be at the time, so that we don’t have to republish,” said Deputy Superintendent of Finance & Operations Elaine Cogburn. “We will know that MCR in August and then potentially if a special [legislative] session reduces that even further, that could continue to be modified. Once TEA certifies that, they will give us notice to proceed with our tax rate adoption.”

The tax rate for the 2023-24 fiscal year will be adopted by the DSISD Board of Trustees no later than Sept. 30. The budget took effect on July 1 and will be amended as the district sees fit through June 2024.

The full budget can be viewed at bit.ly/3O29N89.