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Posted
20 hours ago, Bookman said:

What if you're a masochist? 

Hey! Say that like you’re proud!

Who the fuck are you talking to?

Wait.  I was thinking schizophrenic. Never mind.

Posted
On 3/16/2025 at 9:11 AM, Pato del Muerto said:

Wow 4 elementary schools.   I won’t pretend to know enough to give an educated opinion, but man that’s a big chunk all at once. What was so bad about the buildings?

The four elementary schools being replaced were built in 1975, 1980, 1985 and 1987.  Not young but not old.  Austin's Bowie HS was built in 1987 and the current Austin High was built in 1975, about the same time span.

Austin ISD, by comparison, is just now replacing Travis High School, which was built in 1952, leaving rodent-rich McCallum, also class of '52, as the oldest high school building in town.

As part of that 2019 bond, Keller ISD built four indoor air-conditioned football practice facilities, one at each high school, for a cost of $48 million.  By today's standards that is actually a pretty good price for that kind of building.

I've been paying attention to the Austin ISD bonds since they started with the big bonds in 2017.  Old elementary schools get completely replaced.  At the middle and especially at the high school level, there is a lot of focus on improving athletic facilities and not as much focus on academic areas.  This is not exclusive to Austin ISD, there is an athletics arms war going on all around the state.

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Posted

Keller also (per the Googles) voted to no longer pay into Recapture system. I wish AISD would do the same as it is ridiculous that Austin property tax bills keep going up due to having to make up recapture shortfalls via bonds etc (Crazy thing is that the bonds I believe have a recapture % on them as well)

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Posted
9 hours ago, BrazilHorn said:

Keller also (per the Googles) voted to no longer pay into Recapture system. I wish AISD would do the same as it is ridiculous that Austin property tax bills keep going up due to having to make up recapture shortfalls via bonds etc (Crazy thing is that the bonds I believe have a recapture % on them as well)

Bonds do not have a recapture component, unless there is some weird effect I've not heard about.  Districts plan for bond packages, decide what they want to fund and how much they can afford to borrow, and if the voters approve then they start borrowing and building.  The money stays in the district.

There are two components of school property taxes:

* Maintenance and Operation (M&O) -- this is the money that pays people and it is subject to recapture
* Interest and Sinking (I&S) -- this is the money collected to pay off bonds issued by the district and it is not subject to recapture.

I think the I&S portion is limited to 50 cents of property tax.  Austin ISD is at 12.3 cents.  Keller is at 33 cents.

The M&O portion consists of a "regular" tax portion, plus optional golden pennies, plus optional copper pennies.  The regular portion and the copper pennies are subject to recapture.  The golden pennies are not.  The maximum number of golden and copper pennies is set by the state.

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Posted
7 hours ago, Texas Jeff said:

Bonds do not have a recapture component, unless there is some weird effect I've not heard about.  Districts plan for bond packages, decide what they want to fund and how much they can afford to borrow, and if the voters approve then they start borrowing and building.  The money stays in the district.

There are two components of school property taxes:

* Maintenance and Operation (M&O) -- this is the money that pays people and it is subject to recapture
* Interest and Sinking (I&S) -- this is the money collected to pay off bonds issued by the district and it is not subject to recapture.

I think the I&S portion is limited to 50 cents of property tax.  Austin ISD is at 12.3 cents.  Keller is at 33 cents.

The M&O portion consists of a "regular" tax portion, plus optional golden pennies, plus optional copper pennies.  The regular portion and the copper pennies are subject to recapture.  The golden pennies are not.  The maximum number of golden and copper pennies is set by the state.

Thanks for clarifying. I knew something was subject to recapture beyond just property tax just wasn’t sure if bonds or props. 
 



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