November 2008

News

11/18/2008 Dr. David Anthony

Cy-Fair ISD is in solid academic shape, but faces a dire financial outlook

After earning “Recognized” status in 2008, the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District is looking great on the academic front, but facing financial challenges next year unless the Texas Legislature takes action in the 2009 legislative session, said Cy-Fair ISD Superintendent Dr. David Anthony.

“Our district is poised to deal with the challenges we have, and we will be challenged financially,” Anthony told Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce members during his annual "State of the District" address at the Nov. 18 general membership luncheon.

On the financial front, the district is struggling with the state’s school funding formula and the restrictions placed on revenues that flow into the operations and maintenance fund, which funds salaries and operations, Anthony said.

Texas ’ state funding system includes a “hold harmless” clause, which states that no school district would be negatively impacted by the funding system. However, Anthony said that “hold harmless” includes no inflation factor, nor any benefit from property value growth.

Cy-Fair ISD’s “target revenue” - the cumulative amount of state and local funds that the district will collect for every Weighted Average Daily Attendance student (WADA) – was set in the 2005-06 budget and will never increase without legislative intervention. Cy-Fair ISD’s WADA was frozen at $4,487.

Anthony said almost every district in the Houston area receives a larger WADA amount than Cy-Fair ISD, including Tomball ISD, which receives approximately $900 more per WADA and Spring ISD, which is $300 above Cy-Fair ISD’s WADA.

Cy-Fair ISD officials have said that the district’s five-year financial projection, based on business as usual, indicates that the district would become insolvent within two years.

“We cut $27 million out of our 2008-09 budget, and we can’t afford to do that next year,” Anthony said. “It was our most productive year ever last year, but our folks did not get a raise.”

He said the district is a frugal operator – spending $700 less per pupil than the state average. But that may have been to the detriment of the district as those conservative spending patterns led to the lower WADA, and the state also did not take into account funding that would have been generated by the district’s 20 percent homestead exemption. The district would see an additional $45 million in tax revenue if the exemption was not in place.

“We believe in our homestead exemption, yet we get punished for it,” Anthony said.

He said district officials are lobbying state legislators to make changes to the school finance system in the 2009 session. They would like to see an inflationary factor added into the formula, an allowance for the homestead exemption, and the ability to hold a tax rate increase election before the board is required to vote on the annual budget.

Anthony said district officials are concerned about being able to afford the operational costs that go along with opening new schools in the future. The district opened four new schools this year, and it added $11.2 million to the operations and maintenance budget.

But the district has to provide seats for new students. Even with the downturn in the real estate market, and ailing financial market, the Cy-Fair area continues to grow. Anthony said prior to the economic downturn, the district predicted there would be a growth of about 4,000 students this school year.

The district has surpassed that number, and has 100,850 students in classrooms as of October, Anthony said.

“We will grow by another 17,000 students in the next five years,” Anthony said. “It will not be getting any less crowded on U.S. 290 or in our schools.”

Smith Middle School and Swenke Elementary School are on track to open in the 2009-10 school year, but changes may be made to the new school construction timeline outlined in the district’s 2007 bond program and any future bond program.

“In December we will go to the board with a new schedule for our planned schools,” Anthony said. “We can’t afford to build all of them.”

But looking on the bright side, he said, the Cy-Fair ISD is the largest “Recognized” district in the state based on student performance on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test.

In the 2007-08 school year, students’ Reading/English Language Arts test scores increased by 2 percent, Writing test scores increased by 1 percent, Math scores increased by 2 percent, Social Studies scores increased by 3 percent, and Science scores increased by 7 percent.

Anthony said middle school scores are still a critical focus for the district, and in particular seventh- and eighth-grade math and science scores.

As for individual campus ratings, 10 campuses were rated “Exemplary,” 39 rated “Recognized,” and 21 “Academically Acceptable.” The goal, he said, was to continue to see decreases in the latter category and increases in the top two ratings.

And looking outside the district’s doors, the Cy-Fair community consistently demonstrates tremendous support for the district, Anthony said.

Over 2,500 businesses, community groups and individuals donated $7.2 million to the district last year; and there are 15,445 volunteers registered in the district’s volunteer program. The 450,000-plus volunteer hours they contributed last year equated to about $8.1 million in donated services.

Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce board chairman Reginald Lillie challenged the community to stay the course, and to support the district’s quest to bring change to the state’s school finance system in a tough economic climate.

“Our command is to remain involved with our district because we are in for tough times,” Lillie said. “We need to stay informed, so that we can help lobby for and represent Cy-Fair ISD. The district is critical to economic development in our community.”

November Officer of the Month

Deputy Ronnie Morrison (right) with Harris County Sheriff’s Office District 4 was presented the November officer of the month award. Presenting the award were his supervisor Lieutenant Max Turner (center) and sponsor for the award Justin Lindstrom (left) with Cy-Fair Rotary Club.

11/06/2008

New Woodlands Township Rolls Out New Shuttle System

Along with five partner entities, The District (formerly the Brazos Transit District) and newly-minted Woodlands Township recently implemented a successful shuttle system between Sam Houston State University and The Woodlands.

Steve Sumner, vice president of operations and public safety at The Woodlands Township, and Lyle Nelson, vice president of planning and operations for The District, met with members of the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce’s Mobility Committee Nov. 6 and discussed the fast-tracked “Sam Houston State Shuttle” project, as well as other components of the Montgomery County Transit Plan.

Operated by The District, the new Sam Houston State Shuttle launched service in August, and has seen solid ridership numbers ever since, Sumner and Nelson said.

The Sam Houston State Shuttle’s express bus service runs between The Woodlands and Sam Houston State University in Huntsville . It has five stops along the way, including The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, Portofino Shopping Center in Shenandoah, Lone Star College-Montgomery in The Woodlands, the Conroe Outlet Mall in Conroe , and the west parking lot at SHSU’s Elliott T. Bowers Stadium .

The one-hour trip costs $4 for a one-way ticket and operates Monday to Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 10:15 p.m. There are seven round-trips per day.

“The $4 gas brought out a lot of interest in public transportation, so we fast-tracked a lot of our projects,” Nelson said.

Sumner said the Montgomery County Transportation Task Force released its Montgomery County Transit Plan in March, which outlined public transit needs in the county. The shuttle was a project that many entities were lobbying for, so officials started talking with potential partners and went before the Houston-Galveston Area Council for approval of the project.

HGAC’s Transportation Policy Council approved the project in April, and the various partners – The District, The Woodlands Township, Sam Houston State University , Lone Star College System, city of Shenandoah , and city of Conroe – contributed funding for start-up costs.

Sumner said the system also relies on income from the “fare box” for annual operations and maintenance.

Sumner said the shuttle is the backbone of the transit plan. It connects The Woodlands commercial areas with other key shopping areas, as well as the primary sources of the area’s workforce pool.

“We plan to start marketing the service even more,” Sumner said.

Other transit projects in operation include: The Woodlands Waterway Trolley system, which stops at 12 locations along its 2-mile route and is offered at no cost to riders; The Woodlands Waterway Tax service, which operates along the 1.4-mile waterway; and the Demand and Response Transportation Service, which is a shared ride curb-to-curb service available Monday through Friday from 5am to 7pm for trips that originate and end in Montgomery County.

The District also offers a bus shuttle service from four Park & Rides to the Texas Medical Center , Greenway Plaza , and downtown Houston ; as well fixed route services in Bryan/College Station, Lufkin and Nacogdoches .

Additional projects are in the planning stages.

“We see the need to have more pro-active, long-range planning,” Sumner said.

11/06/2008

State Rep Gary Elkins Talks Appraisal Reform, State Funding Issues with Chamber Investors

“In August, it looked like (the state budget) would have a $10-$14 billion surplus, but Hurricane Ike will probably wipe that out,” State Rep. Gary Elkins said to members of the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce’s Governmental Affairs Committee Nov. 6. “It looks like any hope for cutting our franchise tax is not going to happen.”

Elkins, who was re-elected to his eighth term Nov. 4, said the state is the source of “last resort” insurance in the state. He said many residents affected by Hurricane Ike’s damaging winds and rains in September are facing challenge because their insurance companies doubled their deductibles, and some companies are paying a maximum amount that does not come close to covering the costs of making needed repairs or replacing lost property.

The state will also be required to put a massive amount of funding into repairing medical facilities in Galveston , Elkins said.

Cy-Fair Chamber Board Chairman Reginald Lillie told Elkins that top issues for the Chamber going into the 2009 legislative session include legislation affecting businesses, mobility and education.

Elkins said it will be a contentious session. He said the Republican party lost a few seats in the House, bringing the count to 76 Republicans and 74 Democrats. However, there is a recount ongoing in a House race in Irving and if it swings in the Democrat candidate’s favor, that could move the house into a deadlocked 75-to-75 membership.

“Any (bill) with any controversy will have a hard time passing this session,” Elkins said.

Elkins said an issue that has some hope is a measure of appraisal reform. He said he sits on the House’s Committee on Appraisal Reform, which travelled around the state to talk with residents about what they would like to see changed in the appraisal system.

“We heard the same complaints over and over,” Elkins said. “One of those was that people are fed up with taxing entities using the appraisal process to raise taxes. Technically they are not raising taxes, but residents say they are writing bigger checks to them every year.”

Elkins said residents said they were particularly frustrated this year, because everywhere they turned they heard news about property values decreasing and a housing crisis, but the tax bills still increased.

“They want us to do something about it,” Elkins said.

Elkins said there are certain items committee members have come to a consensus on. First, he said, they agree it is very difficult to get a constitutional amendment passed to reduce the annual appraisal cap from 10 percent to 5 percent, but they will work to get a bill passed that states that a property can only be appraised every two years.

“That effectively means there will be a 5 percent per year cap,” he said.

Secondly, Elkins said the State Comptroller’s office needs to be removed from the appraisal process and put into an auditor’s role. At this time, that office puts out an annual study that suggests appraised values for properties, and local appraisal districts believe they will “fail” the study and possibly face legal action if they do not follow the state’s recommendation.

“However, every bill introduced into the legislature must be signed off by the state controller, so they could attach a multi-million-dollar impact statement onto that bill,” Elkins said.

Thirdly, Elkins said, committee members agree there needs to be reforms made to the equity requirement for commercial property appraisals.

Cy-Fair Chamber committee members told Elkins they are concerned about the funding issues that Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District , and Lone Star College–CyFair are facing. They asked him if he had any comments on a proposal to increase the state sales tax to increase funding for education.

It is estimated that every one-cent in sales tax in the state of Texas generates about $3 billion in revenue.

Elkins said he would have to review the numbers again, but a report he saw indicated that it would need to increase to about 14 percent to wipe out school districts’ maintenance and operations tax rates.

“It would be an almost impossible task, and who would end up paying it?” he said. “I don’t think we can do it that way.”

“I think at some point people may look at a state income tax, but there is not near enough support for that now,” Elkins said. “I think education as we know it is going to have to change. The delivery system now is very costly.”

Elkins said he was certain of one thing – that residents are not willing to pay any additional taxes.

“Probably with the state of the economy, the best we can hope for is a flat budget,” he said.

Archived News

10/21/2008 Congressman Says Businesses Need Incentives to Stimulate Flagging Economy

10/07/2008 Precinct 3 Moves Forward with Highway 290-Area Road Projects

10/07/2008 State Senator Patrick Predicts a Tough 2009 Legislative Session

09/08/2008 "Discover Cy-Fair" Golf Tourney Oct. 29

09/08/2008 Troyer Leaves Impressive Legacy as she Embarks on New Career Venture

09/08/2008 Mobility Forum Sets Stage for Transit-Oriented Movement

08/07/2008 Toll Road Projects could ease Congestion on Highway 290. The Questions is: WHEN?

08/07/2008 Democratict Congressional Candidate Vows to Better Represent Chamber, Residents if Elected to District 7 Seat

07/02/2008 Bury+Partners, Inc. Underwrites the First Annual Chamber Mobility Forum