McAllen school district trustees will consider Monday calling for a tax ratification election to be held this November that, if approved by the voters, would result in a 3.76% tax increase.
A board workshop from last week, however, showed that board support for the election seems to have flagged significantly.
According to the board’s agenda for Monday, the 3.76% increase being proposed would set the tax rate at $1.0964.
The agenda does not mention employee pay, although that was the topic that spurred the district to consider the election earlier this summer. Additional funds generated through a potential increase would be used solely for security upgrades and the establishment of a universal Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4 program available at no cost to families of students.
“It is our fiduciary responsibility to look out for the district; in doing so we will explore all options available to us,” Board President Tony Forina wrote Saturday. “A trustee has studied the potential positive and negative results of a VATRE and asked for action and that has brought us to this point.”
Trustees began talking about the prospect of an election while struggling to find funds for employee pay increases in a tight budget this summer and voted to direct the district’s administration to prepare for calling one in June, although that decision wasn’t unanimous.
Two trustees voted against moving toward the election, and a trustee who was absent from the meeting had previously expressed concern over the idea.
At last week’s workshop, two trustees who had voted in favor of preparing for the election signaled that they’d changed their mind and likely wouldn’t support it.
Perhaps the election’s only remaining supporter, Trustee Sam Saldivar said the Pre-K programs the election would support could be an answer to the district’s long-running enrollment decline, which corresponds to a decrease in funding. He said instituting those programs has long been a goal at the district.
“We all know the information. We all have the data, we know what’s happening, and it’s consistently being informed that we know if we get (students) at Pre-K 3 Pre-K 4, we’re in a much better position,” he said.
Increases to security spending didn’t get as much oxygen in the conversation. McAllen ISD Police Chief Jose “Joey” Silva has consistently described his department as well equipped and well supported, although he and administration indicated door sensors and fencing may be areas security could be improved at a safety town hall Thursday.
Security was a focus of the district’s last voter-approved tax ratification election in 2018, which passed and the district credits that election with giving it the police force it has today.
Regardless, Conrado “Ito” Alvarado and Debbie Crane Aliseda, who’d previously entertained the idea of the election, said their support had wavered.
Crane Aliseda said she felt the election process was being rushed and seemed like far from a sure thing, saying she’d rather support a declared disaster option related to Winter Storm Uri that would bring in some money and consider a tax ratification election option in the future.
Alvarado said he didn’t feel he could support the election without some significant budgetary belt-tightening.
“My struggle is, I’ve gotten pushback that we’re trying to raise money right during the inflation,” he said.
Belt-tightening was also on the mind of Trustee Sofia Peña, the election’s most vocal critic.
“We have spending that can wait,” she said. “We have projects that are not being exclusively done with our district, and projects that we need to go back and revisit. And it’s about tightening our belts. And if you want universal Pre-K and you want everyone to go into Pre-K, then we’re going to have to sacrifice some of those projects.”
Peña was referring to a $12.5 million investment in a collegiate high school partnership with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley that the board approved earlier this year and a $4 million commitment to a Quinta Mazatlán expansion project it approved last year.
Rumblings of remorse about those projects popped up on the board during its budget process.
The board has never had a substantive talk on changing its commitment to those projects and it’s not clear what that process would look like.
Trustees were supposed to revisit spending on special projects before Monday’s deadline to call the election, but as Trustee Saldivar noted to Peña, those conversations never materialized.
“I’m not seeing that happen,” he said. “I haven’t seen any workshop that’s saying let’s go over these things that you just mentioned. I agree with you, we need to sit down and start looking at these things, but nobody’s brought it forward.”
Trustees will also consider calling for an efficiency audit Monday that would provide voters information on the district’s fiscal management if the election is called.
The board will consider calling the election during a special meeting at noon Monday.
If approved, the election would be held Nov. 8.
