EPISD: ‘Penny swap’ will fund budget priorities

El Pasoans will be voting this month on the El Paso Independent School District’s “penny swap” election.

EPISD official have said if voters give it the green light, it could switch some money around in its two budgets and unleash millions more from the state.
A big part of that money is going toward pay increases for teachers and hourly workers. That’s already been approved by the school board.

If voters approve the Tax Ratification Election measure this month, EPISD officials have said the district would receive about $13.7 million in extra money a year. Nine million of that would go toward the pay increases for teachers and hourly employees and every year $4.7 million would go toward what the district calls ‘budget priorities.’ That includes everything from replacing buses, musical instruments, expanding science labs, paying for summer camps, and technology equipment.

District officials have said it would take years to fully fund all budget priorities but the additional $4.7 million would cover the cost for something every year. “If the voters approved the penny swap, it would be used toward these priorities. It’s just a matter of getting the school board to prioritize what needs to happen first based on need and then move forward with that,” said Gustavo Reveles Acosta, an EPISD Spokesman.

He added the board would have to do a cost analysis for each priority. “We need to make sure we follow every, rule from procurement to pricing.”

Voting ‘yes’ in the tax ratification election allows the district to shift three pennies per homeowner from the district’s debt tax rate to its operational tax rate. The total tax rate stays the same, though there’s an increase in one budget and a decrease in the other one.

Because the board already voted to decrease the debt tax rate, the ballot language only asks voters to increase the operational tax rate, leading some voters to think they are voting to increase their taxes. Reveles Acosta said that’s because only half of the picture is represented in the ballot language. “We’re promising the public that it’s there (the reduction to the debt budget). We realize the ballot only has one half of the story. But there are published documents that show the other half is there. That it’s not just our word, that it’s actually published. It’s law that we have to reduce those three pennies in order to raise those other three pennies.”

The district would have to ask voters if it wanted to increase taxes in the future because it’s reached it’s cap on the operation tax rate, said Reveles Acosta.