Brittany Kelley
WIMBERLEY — Taxpayers will see a lower tax rate from the school district, following action from the Wimberley ISD Board of Trustees at its Aug. 17 meeting.
Beginning with the proposed tax rate, Chief Financial Officer Michael Doyle explained that because local property value grew by 2.87%, the state provides a compression to the maximum compressed tax rate (MCR). This resulted in the maintenance and operations tax rate decreasing by $0.0023, from $0.7088 to $0.7065. The interest and sinking rate is holding at $0.3011, making the total tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year $1.0076, as compared to $1.0099 from the current year.
“If you approve a higher rate, that automatically triggers a voter-approval tax rate election. If you approve a rate lower than your voter-approval tax rate, you're actually subject to penalization and you don't collect the funding that you would actually need to operate at a full capacity,” warned Doyle.
He then moved on to the operating budget.
“Our assumed [average daily attendance (ADA)] rate for next year is 2,400, which is pretty right in line with where we finished. We've completed this past school year at 2,401. We've really looked at trends in the past. We don't want to overestimate our ADA and assume that we're going to have more students at the end of the year collecting for us than what we [do because] that will cause a deficit at the end of the day. So, this is a conservative rate, but it also matches trends and it also is based on a 95% assumed attendance rate, which is holding steady to years past or the last couple years,” said Doyle.
The total revenue projected for FY 2026-27 is $45,493,063, combining: $38,630,586 from local revenue; $6,190,983 from state revenue, $549,644 from federal revenue; and $121,850 from other sources.
“We report our budget based on function to the state and that is how the board has to adopt the budget. It's down at the function level. You can see, again, the categories [for the expenditures in] the funding, if you will: the general fund, food service fund, debt service fund and total amount of the proposed budget. Within our general fund, specifically, our total expenditures are budgeted at $31,578,232 … You can see our total [food service] expenditures are budgeted at $1,169,335,” said Doyle, though for child nutrition, the district will be in a deficit, due to increased food prices.
The debt service budget expenditures sit at $12,185,767, continued the CFO, stating that staff is looking into debt and determining if the district will have the opportunity to pay it off early. This would “save the community money” and allow the district to work on its fund balance, with the possibility of a refund in the future.
The total proposed expenditures are $44,933,334.
Both the budget for FY 2026-27 and a tax rate of $1.0076 passed unanimously.
The Wimberley ISD Board of Trustees will meet next Monday, Sept. 21.
