During
the course of Monday’s regular meeting of the AISD Board of Trustees, a couple of thoughts
occurred: Has the board been relegated to the “B” list of invited guests to
participate in making the district’s annual budget? And secondly, isn’t the
1997-98 budget cycle off to a rather late start — in direct opposition to the
board’s request for a much more timely process? AISD Superintendent Jim Fox
said that omitting the board from the calendar for upcoming budget negotiations
was inadvertent; and AISD staffers said that missing two solid days of work
this month because of the ice storm has put everyone behind schedule. But board
members accepted these explanations with a great deal of reservation.
As is the custom every January, Deputy Superintendent Kay Psencik presented
trustees with a step-by-step outline of actions for formulating the 1997-98
budget. But as far as trustee Tom Agnor was concerned, the district’s already
behind schedule by at least a month, even though he’s aware that potential
action by the Texas Legislature on property tax reform may upset the whole
apple cart for everyone. “We’re way late in starting the spade work,” he said.
What’s more, according to the schedule Psencik submitted, trustees weren’t
going to enter the process until sometime in April, well after AISD staff and
the districtwide budget council had done most of the dirty work. This was
unacceptable to many members, especially to trustees Geoff Rips, Ted Whatley,
and Loretta Edelen, who all wanted to know exactly when the district
administration was planning to let the board in on the plan — and adopt the
budget assumptions that guide the entire process for everyone involved, from
the get-go. After all, the school budget is prepared at the behest — but not
by the hands — of the school board.
Admittedly, this is a fine distinction, and one that’s not easily understood
sometimes. In years past, even members of the board didn’t quite grasp this
idea (and/or they deeply mistrusted district officials), and they would
personally tinker with line items in the budget document, as though they were
at a swap meet. With the balance between board members and management out of
whack, the budget adoption process turned into a nightmarish mess. Now, with
trusted personnel in key positions, and program-based budgeting in place, the
board is able to focus more on its policy-setting role. But it looks like
trustees wouldn’t be totally out of line if they demanded to be put on the
budget planning calendar.
“I hope it was just an oversight,” said Rips of the omission. And indeed,
although it didn’t get printed on the calendar, trustees are scheduled to
receive info about budget assumptions for
1997-98 at the next regular
meeting on February 10, and adopt the assumptions on February 24.
Whatley is irritated that the board isn’t scheduled to formally adopt the
budget until June 23, after this school year is over. Trustees should get the
budget done before school ends, “so teachers will know where the hell they are”
in terms of salaries and teaching loads, he said.
In anticipation of Governor George W. Bush’s “State of the State” address on
Tuesday, Fox told trustees that a lot of rumor and confusion lies ahead for
everyone, but that AISD staff will keep the board abreast of all developments
at the Capitol on property tax reduction.
As expected, Bush’s speech culminated in a call to reduce school funding’s
reliance on local property taxes throughout the state. His plan would reduce
those taxes by $3 billion per year, employing a virtual cornucopia of methods.
The state would supposedly make up the difference by increasing the state sales
tax and motor vehicle sales tax, and by instituting the true cherry on top of
Bush’s proposal, the so-called “Texas Business Tax” (see “On the Lege,”
p.24).
Tellingly, Bush never said whether his plan improves, destroys, or has no
effect on equity in this state. For the last 20 years, Texas has grappled with
school finance without examining our system of taxation, and now, with Bush’s
speech, the reverse is true.
This article appears in January 31 • 1997 and January 31 • 1997 (Cover).