School Bond said a Plus for County
Editor’s Note: the following information was taken from an informational brochure distributed by GCISD.
The Glasscock County Independent School District has called a bond election for a total of $4 million to be held May 13 with early voting May 1 – 9.
Bond money will be spent on roof repair and replacement; construction and remodeling; school buses and transportation; technology equipment; building material and equipment.
According to the Texas Education Agency, which is Texas Independent School Districts’ regulatory body, GCISD is currently considered a “property wealthy” district. Under the state’s current funding program, this means GCISD must give the state a percentage (currently over 70 percent) of its Maintenance and Operations tax collections, which is then redistributed to “property poor” districts. This equalization of all Texas school districts is known as “Robin Hood” and the payment to the state is known as “recapture.”
In 1997, the state legislature passed a bill that allows property wealthy districts to reduce their recapture payments to the state by issuing bonds. GCISD can avoid the payment of recapture for taxes that are levied to pay off voted bonds. This means that all local tax dollars raised for the repayment of this bond issue will be kept in our district. In other words, by issuing bonds, citizens of GCISD are ensured that those tax dollars will be used in GCISD rather than in other school districts throughout the state.
The bonds issued from this election will not cause any increase in the total tax rate.
A public information meeting regarding the bond election will be held April 25 at 6 p.m. in the Ruth Cook Auditorium, with a second pubic meeting to be held later at a time and place to be announced.