Robin Hood payments for Northeast Tarrant schools skyrocket

Grapevine-Colleyville and Carroll school district officials are bracing for much bigger recapture payments next year as property values continue to rise.

For Grapevine-Colleyville schools, the “Robin Hood” payment will go from about $30.2 million in 2016-17 to almost $44 million for 2017-18, a 45 percent increase. The Carroll school district will pay $26.3 million, a $7.1 million increase, or a 37 percent boost.

The state’s recapture system takes money from property wealthy districts and redistributes it to property poor districts. Anything over a certain amount of tax values per student goes back to the state.

At a May 22 budget workshop, Grapevine-Colleyville Superintendent Robin Ryan told trustees that district administrators were not anticipating any changes from the Legislature to provide relief from the payments.

The Texas Legislature ended the 85th session May 29 without any significant changes to the school funding formula after a fight between the Senate and the House over a voucher program for some special education students stymied efforts to increase funding for public schools.

GCISD Chief Financial Officer DaiAnn Mooney estimated property tax growth for 2017-18 at a conservative 8 percent. Grapevine-Colleyville schools begin their budget year July 1, and tax values from the Tarrant Appraisal District are not available until late July.

The preliminary budget for Grapevine-Colleyville shows an expected deficit for next year of about $6.4 million on a daily operating budget of $122 million, but the district can cover any shortfall out of savings, or fund balance, currently above $56 million. The district fund balance is about $30 million over the state recommendation of around 20 percent of annual operating costs.

Scott Wrehe, Carroll’s assistant superintendent for financial services, said he expects about 10.6 percent growth in property values.

Carroll’s current projected budget deficit for 2017-2018 is $2 million. That’s before any raise, if approved, is included.

“The district’s 2016-2017 budget deficit was $1.6 million, but the district has seen some budget savings this year and does not anticipate needing to use fund balance,” Wrehe said.

Fund balance for Carroll schools is at about $34 million on a daily operating budget of $102 million.

This report contains information from the Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published June 4, 2017 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Robin Hood payments for Northeast Tarrant schools skyrocket."