By Scott Harvey
Commerce – The Commerce ISD has scheduled two town hall meetings to address an upcoming tax ratification election.
The district is asking voters to approve a 13 cent tax rate hike to cover a nearly $700,000 budget shortfall. If approved, it would mean a $130 annual tax increase on a $100,000 home or $10.83 per month. The new rate would not affect the taxes on homes of persons who are 65 years of age or older.
According to Superintendent Blake Cooper, since 2007 there have been 301 school districts in Texas conduct tax ratification elections, with 209 passing.
Cooper continues to address the lack of state funding districts are receiving, specifically when it comes to the Weighted Average Daily Attendance (WADA), or the average number of students enrolled in weighted funded programs. Commerce ISD is currently ranked in the bottom quarter of all Texas school districts in that category. During Monday's board meeting, Cooper stated that if their WADA ranking was the average of all districts, CISD would receive over $1 million in extra state funding. If it was in the top 100 schools, they would receive over $6.5 million.
A breakdown of CISD finance is available at http://www.commerceisd.org/docs/1-CISD%20FINANCE%20POWER%20POINT%20-%20REVISED3.pdf.
The first town hall meeting to address the proposed increase in tax rate will be held at 6 p.m., Monday, July 26 at the Norris Community Center. The second meeting will be held at 7 p.m., Tuesday, July 27, at the Commerce High School cafetorium.
Other area school districts conducting a tax ratification this year include Royse City and Terrell.