Published: August 27, 2008 03:01 am            

PISD board OKs budget

PALESTINE — Calling it a “worst-case scenario,” Palestine Independent School District trustees adopted a 2008-09 budget Tuesday that would require the use of over $1 million in district fund balance money.

The 2008-09 general budget totaled -$1,097,016, with a debt service budget of -$72,892 and a food service budget of $21,500.

According to PISD Business Manager Meagan Lawson, those negative budgets will be balanced out by taking money from the district’s fund balance, or savings fund, which now holds an estimated $8.9 million.

“The reason we had to adopt a budget like this was because, although student enrollment numbers are up this year, they decreased from the 2006-07 year to 2007-08,” Lawson said after the meeting. “That drop in enrollment lowered the amount of funding we expect to receive from the state, and with our tax rate maxed out, we will have to use money from the fund balance.”

Lawson added that other districts around the state, like Corpus Christi and Fort Worth ISD’s, were facing the same dilemma and the situation would only worsen if the legislature does not take action.

“There is a rumor in the school business community that the legislature will not even discuss school finance in the upcoming 2009 session, but will wait until 2011,” she said. “That will cause more and more districts to conserve those fund balance dollars to compensate their general budgets.”

Some cuts had to be made during the budget planning process to decrease what Lawson found would be a deficit budget, particularly in the area of maintenance.

“We had to cut a few projects we had planned for in the upcoming year,” she said. “It is all just a ‘wait and see’ situation. If funds come available later, we can amend the budget.”

Lawson said that the district’s fund balance was in good shape, with an estimated projected fund balance of $7.8 million expected at the conclusion of the 2008-09 budget year.

“The state requires a minimum fund balance equal to three months of general operating expenses,” she said. “And we have that, plus some.”

Lawson also explained that general fund budget expenses — totaling about $26.1 million — were slightly overestimated, and that local tax collections were underestimated, at 96 percent collected.

“It is a ‘worst case scenario’ budget,” Lawson said. “Things could turn out completely different as the year goes on and we might not even need to use money from the fund balance.”

An overall tax rate of $1.2907 per $100 of property valuation — which includes a Maintenance and Operations tax rate of $1.17 , and a slightly increased debt service tax rate of $.1207 per $100 — was also approved by the board Tuesday.

Copies of the adopted budget are available at the PISD Administration Office, located at 1600 S. Loop 256 on the Palestine High School Campus.

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Mary Rainwater may be reached via e-mail at mrainwater@palestineherald.com

        

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