Lubbock ISD Calls For Election to Access $5.5 Million for School Budget

The Lubbock Independent School District Board of Trustees called for an election to access $5.5 million for the district's budget, but with a catch.

The catch is that the tax rate for the district won't be raised to get the extra money, but transferring tax credits from debt service to the maintenance and operations budget.

From Lubbock ISD:

The August 30 election will ask voters to approve keeping the district’s total tax rate at the same $1.235 per $100 valuation while allowing the district to access more than $5.5 million in state/local funds by shifting two cents of the tax rate from debt service to maintenance and operations.

The shift will allow the district an annual increase in state funding to facilitate a “pay-as-you-go model” for instructional technology and priority capital projects.

Superintendent Berhl Robertson, Jr., said, “This shift of two pennies from one side of the tax rate to the other is good business. It will allow us to pay cash for priority capital projects and instructional technology, like Chrome books and iPads, rather than financing those things over time.

We have managed our bond projects well. We are at a point where we can pay off our debt on schedule and leverage state funds that we are leaving on the table in Austin.”

Voters living in Lubbock ISD will have to approve the measure in a Tuesday, August 30th Tax Ratification Election. The proposal also calls for a so called "pay as you go" model for instructional technology and capital projects.