Marble Falls ISD bond fails
FROM STAFF REPORTS
MARBLE FALLS — Even though school officials insisted the passage of a $6.5 million bond proposal wouldn’t increase the Marble Falls Independent School District tax rate and and would benefit students, voters denied the additional funding.
The bond failed 1,154-995 in the Nov. 5 election.
“I really don’t know what happened,” MFISD Superintendent Rob O’Connor said. “We were going out for a bond for all the right reasons.”
The funding would have been used to update the district’s technology and provide additional equipment for the career and technical programs at Marble Falls High School. Under the proposal, the district would have refinanced some existing bonds to “build capacity” to pay for these bonds through the interest and sinking (debt service) fund.
By issuing bonds and funding the projects through debt service, the money would not have been subject to Chapter 41 recapture. If the school district were to fund the projects through the maintenance and operation portion of the budget, 46 percent of those additional funds raised through taxes would be subject to recapture.
In other words, for every new $100,000 the district brings in through the maintenance and operation rate, the state would get $46,000.
“The way we did this would mean local taxes would have stayed here, benefitting our students,” O’Connor said. “We were going out for a bond for all the right reasons. I don’t know if we didn’t communicate it well enough or what. I just don’t know what happened.”
The superintendent said it’s up to the school board to decide how to proceed.
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