Austin, Texas – Austin School Board members are facing a critical deadline to address the district’s growing budget deficit. They have only until August 19 to put a tax rate election on the November 5 ballot. Austin School Board members will discuss this proposed tax rate election tonight.

You may have heard of this issue before. It’s called the Voter Approval Tax Rate Election, or VATRE (pronounced “Vader”). Asking voters to approve an increase in their own taxes is a tall order, but Austin ISD has a $78 million deficit at the start of the new school year. If the VATRE is successful, the budget deficit could be reduced to $41 million by increasing the average tax bill by about $400 per year.

Austin isn’t the only state facing red numbers heading into the new school year. Despite recent inflation, the state is refusing to increase per capita funding for Texas public schools, leaving local districts scrambling to find more savings to balance their budgets.

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Teachers fear that cuts that are too deep could eventually affect teaching.

Ken Zarifis, president of Education Austin, says, “Because of the legislature and governor’s insistence on holding education voucher funds hostage, school districts across the state are struggling with their budgets and running budget deficits, and that’s exactly what we have here in Austin.”

Austin ISD also has a unique financial constraint. Thanks to some creative accounting at the state level, Austin ISD is required to give half of the money it collects from local taxpayers to the state to redistribute to other school districts. The state calls this program “recapture.”

Even the VATRE money, if approved, would have to be shared with the state. Austin ISD board members have given themselves until Aug. 16 to decide whether to put it before voters.