AUSTIN, Texas — Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura revealed what percent of the district's staff will get a pay raise if voters approve Proposition A.
Under the ballot measure, property taxes would rise $34 a month for the typical Austin ISD homeowner who has an estimated home value of $553,493. The tax increase would not affect homeowners with an over-65 exemption.
Segura said 85% of staff would get raises with Prop A passing. A pay scale released by the district on Tuesday showed the more years of experience an educator has, the higher their raise will get, between a 1.4% and 7.3% increase on average.
“You think about bread, you think about fuel, all of these things ... Well compound that given the size of our organization 3-5% every year. That's $30-50 million.” Segura said.
That’s on top of a $92 million budget shortfall Segura and other Austin ISD officials blame on a lack of state funding.
“There isn’t a way to cut your way out of the deficit,” Segura said.
What is Prop A?
The tax hike would raise an extra $171 million per year, but Austin ISD would only keep $41 million of that because of recapture.
Recapture is the program also known as "Robin Hood" where the state takes money from property-wealthy districts like Austin ISD to subsidize poorer districts.
“If Proposition A does not pass, there will not be a compensation increase at all," Segura said.
However, on Oct. 18, 10 former Austin ISD trustees posted a letter on social media criticizing Prop A.
“The district may be on the brink of financial exigency without a major shift in funding streams, but this proposed tax rate increase won’t fix the problems," the letter read in part on the X page of former Austin ISD Board of Trustees President Kendall Pace. "It also comes without any significant operations reductions at the district, at a very high expense to taxpayers, and with minimal benefit to students, the district, or public education as a whole."
The Travis County Taxpayers Union also opposes Prop A and similar bond efforts in other school districts like Round Rock ISD. Former Austin City Council Member Don Zimmerman, who also serves as the group's executive director, said the bond efforts are because property taxes are going up while enrollment trends downward.
"We say that the parents who know vote no ... their kids, who can’t vote yet, are gonna have to pay these higher rents and taxes 20 years from now," Zimmerman said.
However, Segura believes the larger risk is in not investing in teachers, who leaders say are leaving for better paying, more affordable suburban districts.
"I am wanting to protect that as best I can with every available tool that I have, and this is one of them," Segura said. "Proposition A is one of them, and really the last one that we have."
Meanwhile, Segura told KVUE that Austin ISD has cut $30 million in the current fiscal year from central administration. He also said the 15% of Austin ISD staff not getting raises are almost all executives.
Austin ISD is looking to cut another $92 million over the next three years with the "most painful" cuts as late as possible. Segura said those should get Austin ISD through two legislative sessions, but hopes the state steps in first.