This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District is holding an election this year that could change the local property tax rate and bring in new school funding.
But HEB ISD isn鈥檛 the only district in the Metroplex calling for a tax rate election.
四虎影院鈥檚 Mid-Cities Communities Reporter Andy Lusk and All Things Considered host Justin Martin discuss what these elections are and why they鈥檙e happening in communities across the Metroplex.
Justin Martin: Andy, you鈥檝e been digging into an upcoming VATRE for the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District. What is that?
Lusk: VATRE is an acronym 鈥� it stands for Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election. In , residents will decide if they want to increase their local property tax rate to boost funding for their school district.
However, school district officials anticipate most homeowners will see a slight decrease in their overall property tax bill. That鈥檚 because of recent .
Martin: And the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District is holding their very first election of this kind, to district officials鈥� knowledge.
Lusk: That鈥檚 right. I spoke with (HEB ISD) Superintendent Joe Harrington last month and he told me the school board decided to call the election this year because without a funding boost, they鈥檙e going to consider making staff and program cuts to balance the budget.
Harrington said, 鈥淭he last two legislative sessions, as we really got into the funding bills and saw where we were, I'm just going to be honest, neither one of them provided us the funding to get back to the levels we were.鈥�
When Harrington says the school district hasn鈥檛 gotten back to their previous funding levels, he鈥檚 referring to state-level changes made in 2019. That year , which worked largely in school districts鈥� favor.
But despite the changes, Harrington told me that in the last few years, it鈥檚 been tough for school budgets to keep up with outside factors like inflation and rising insurance costs.
Martin: Multiple school districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex have called these special elections this year. Tell me more about that.
Lusk: is holding a VATRE and . In fact, the Northwest election is the second in two years, after a proposed tax rate increase didn鈥檛 pass in 2024. Grapevine-Colleyville ISD voters .
The Carroll ISD website cites a funding gap and a roughly $4 million projected deficit as the special election. They say they鈥檙e 鈥渘ear the bottom鈥� in state funding out of more than a thousand school districts.
Martin: HEB ISD is a big school district, and it鈥檚 facing a $20.6 million deficit this year. Where does that figure come from?
Lusk: According to Harrington, the district hasn鈥檛 changed much about how it operates in recent years. It鈥檚 the cost of those operations that鈥檚 different from years past.
This year a bill in the state legislature to help school districts retain . That second pot goes toward counselors, nurses, librarians, custodians and secretaries, among others 鈥� including teachers鈥� assistants and new teachers, interestingly. But Harrington says the support staff allotment wasn鈥檛 as much as the district needed to raise that group鈥檚 salaries the way they wanted to.
Harrington said, 鈥淚 am so happy for the teachers, but the teachers got their raise. Not only did some people not get the raise, there was almost disrespect in how they wrote the bill. Like excluding certain groups. I mean, why are we excluding librarians? Why were the paras, our lowest paid employees, left off the big raise?鈥�
Martin: And if the VATRE is approved for HEB ISD, where will the new funds go?
Lusk: This money goes into the district鈥檚 maintenance and operations budget, which helps pay salaries and other day-to-day expenses. New funds are expected to alleviate about half of the budget deficit we talked about earlier.
Harrington said, 鈥淭his VATRE allows us to get that operating budget up where it's going to need to be in 2025, based on where we are and the expectations of our community, and the expectations of us wanting to help our community, and to keep our taxes as low as possible.鈥�
HEB ISD鈥檚 special election is November 4 鈥� Election Day. In-person early voting runs from October 20 to 31.
The school district is hosting a few different public discussions about the VATRE throughout October 鈥� you can find more info about those events at the HEB ISD website, which has .
Got a tip? Email Andy Lusk at alusk@kera.org.
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