Education is the pathway to the future. The students of today are the workforce of tomorrow.
They need to be well educated, so they are prepared to take on tasks that haven’t even been conceived today.
The Abilene ISD is asking voters to consider a mechanism to generate additional funds, and the Board of Directors of the Abilene Chamber of Commerce has unanimously endorsed it.
The school district has called a Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election (VATRE) for Nov. 4th, the same day of the statewide constitutional amendments election.
VATRE is a local school funding election that asks voters whether or not they authorize the school district to access the maintenance and operations tax rate to create additional local funding and additional state funding to be used for specific purposes.
If approved, that will mean more than $10 million annually for the operation and maintenance of our schools. That would include things such as:
Recruiting and retaining teachers,
Updating an aging bus fleet,
Preventing other deferred maintenance,
Eliminating the current budget deficit of $3.4 million.
This is not just a one-year bandage on the problem.
More good news: The total school tax rate will see a reduction. School trustees have reduced the Interest and Sinking Fund rate.
So, the increase in the Maintenance and Operation rate is more than offset by the reduction of Interest and Sinking Fund rate.
If VATRE is approved, the total tax rate will be $0.9580. If it is not approved, the rate will be $0.8980.
Regardless of the election outcome, the overall tax rate and the tax bill will decrease for the average AISD homeowner.
If it passes, average taxes go down $174.07 a year, and if it fails, taxes go down $208.67 annually. That is a $34.60 difference, or $2.88 a month.
The Abilene Chamber of Commerce encourages our members to vote in this election, and to look favorably at the funding needs of one of the community's most important assets.