AUSTIN, Texas — On Thursday, the Austin ISD Board of Trustees approved a $954 million budget for the 2024-25 school year.
The district said that Austin taxpayers generated $1.69 billion in revenue for the upcoming year, which begins on July 1, but $821 million of that will be sent to the state's recapture program. That program redistributes money from wealthy districts to boost poorer districts. Austin ISD sends more money to the program than any other district in Texas.
Because of that, the district is expecting to operate with a $78 million deficit for the upcoming school year, though it says that deficit could get down to $41 million with "expected vacancy savings, ongoing cost reductions throughout the year and possible approval of a Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election," or VATRE.
The budget doesn't include any funding for staff pay increases – the district said any pay increases would need funding through a successful VATRE or other new revenue sources. Austin ISD said without a successful VATRE, full-time employees will only receive a one-time incentive payment of $500.
The district did approve a historic 7% raise last year, in anticipation of an increase in public school funding from the state that never came.
"Stagnant state funding has been a major factor in the budget shortfall since school funding formulas haven’t been updated since 2019, despite a mutli-billion dollar state budget surplus," the district said in its announcement of the budget approval.
The Austin ISD Board of Trustees has until August to call a tax rate election.