Lawmakers in the Texas House have approved the establishment of a database for information regarding current or future public school bond projects.
Senate Bill 843, authored by State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R–Brenham), passed with bipartisan support on Tuesday in a 144-0-4 vote. Senators previously passed the proposal in late April.
Kolkhorst’s measure would direct the Texas Education Agency to create a new database containing information on estimated tax increases associated with proposed bond projects.
It would also require the database to show the ballot language of each bond proposition, the results of bond elections, a list of projects funded by each bond, an accounting of bond proceeds, and general information on what is being built using bond funds.
School districts or open-enrollment charter schools would be required to provide the agency with information on their bond proposals.
State Rep. Brad Buckley (R–Salado), who is carrying SB 843 in the House, said when laying out the measure on the floor on Monday that it would greatly “improve transparency” in the school bond process.
Following the brief introduction, State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R–Southlake) proposed an amendment requiring the TEA to transmit its information to the Bond Review Board, which was adopted without objection.
The House’s decision to approve SB 843 comes amid concerns from grassroots activists who say current Texas bond elections are often missing information or incorporate disinformation.
In Tatum Independent School District’s bond election last year, for example, activists criticized the election’s validity due to misleading information, including the tax impact of the vote.
According to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, “Most property taxes (80%) are collected from taxpayers for the maintenance and operations (M&O) of a local government’s day-to-day expenses. Of these M&O taxes, the school district portion is the largest.”
The remaining portion of property taxes, which school districts delineate as the interest and sinking (I&S) tax rate, is collected to pay down local debt, created in part by bonds.
While many school districts advertise their bond proposals as having no effect on the overall tax rate, they still increase local property tax obligations.
SB 843 will now be sent back to the Texas Senate, which will likely concur with the House’s amendment so the proposal can be sent to the governor’s desk.
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