GISD board adopts budget, voter-approval tax rate

Following a public hearing, the Graham ISD Board of Trustees adopted a budget and tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year, with planned initiatives to improve the district’s financial standing.

The GISD board held a public hearing where they voted to adopt the budget and tax rate Wednesday, Aug. 27 at the GISD Administration Building. 

Chief Financial Officer Gary Browning spoke to the trustees during the meeting as well as during meetings held Wednesday, Aug. 6 and Tuesday, Aug. 12. 

Browning explained the importance of the district to not overproject its revenue and underproject expenses. 

“Inflationary costs on the maintenance and operations side over the last five years skyrocketed, and our budgeted expenditure lines for those costs have not been increasing at the same rate,” he said Aug. 12.

The board adopted the voter-approval tax rate of $0.9863 per $100 valuation, which is a slight decrease from the current tax rate of $0.9888 per $100 valuation. The voter approval rate is the highest tax rate the district may adopt without holding an election to seek voter approval of the rate. 

“We don’t have a lot of flexibility within setting these rates. The state provides the maximum compress rate then we can adopt, and then we can adopt five pennies on top of that, without going to the voters for approval of a further increase,” Browning said Aug. 12. “The appraisal district has had a big part in the calculation of this rate.”

Annually, the district is also required to approve the North Central Texas College tax rate, and that was adopted at $0.044942 per $100 valuation, an increase over the current rate of $0.042367 per $100 valuation.

District resident Greg Bonzelaar raised concerns in the meeting about the NCTC tax rate being proposed at the voter approval rate and having no homestead or senior tax exemption.

“Our property taxes are high enough and I know you have budget concerns, but everybody around here does also so I just would like y’all to consider that,” he said. “...These tax increases (through bond projects) got voted down two years ago for the athletic stuff and the comfort level of sports and citizens around here getting pretty tight. This is not just me talking, and I’m not talking for anybody else, but there’s financial issues in this town and the money doesn’t grow on trees.”

The fund balance for the district has dropped from $22,465,694.90 in December 2023 to $16,231,429.09 in June 2025, with the largest drop from 2024 to 2025 of $4.73 million. As that fund decreases, the interest for that fund has also dropped.

“The things you have accomplished with (the most recent funding) are turf for softball and baseball. You’ve also accomplished the band hall at Graham Junior High and several other smaller projects as well,” Browning said Aug. 12. “A lot has been accomplished with that money, but we also need to be aware that the fund balance is declining and decreasing as we move forward.”

As of the first budget meeting, the school was projecting a loss of $1,091,917 for the coming school year between their funds, but were working to adjust that number. That number was only slightly adjusted before adoption of the budget.

“It’s not much different than what was presented to you in early August,” Browning said. “I believe we were able to decrease that difference by about $980, but there were also some extra expenditures that went into the budget, so we had to offset some of those as well with staff needs.”

Altogether the revenue totals $29,787,554 in revenue and $30,848,018 in expenditures, for a difference of $1,060,464. 

The GISD budget is broken down into four revenue sources which are athletics, general fund, food service and debt service.

In athletics, the district is projecting $150,000 in revenue and $562,665 in expenditures for a difference of $412,665. Likewise, the general fund is projected to have $24,845,167 in revenue and $25,492,966 in expenditures, for a negative difference of $647,799.

The district is planning for an even amount of revenue and expenditures in food service of $1.166 million and debt service of $3,626,387. 

One challenge the district is facing with the budget are declining enrollment and attendance rates, which was discussed during the first two budget meetings. 

Since 2015, with the exception of 2022, the district has seen a decline in enrollment, with 2,445 in October 2015 and now 2,122 anticipated for 2026.

A general education student who receives no additional special services will provide the district $35 per day from the state.

“A student who does receive special services can help us with funding up to $55 per day,” Browning said. “...Loss of one student in enrollment costs GISD between $6,380 and $10,000 in the school year. So 30 students would equate to between $191,400 and $300,000.”

The amount budgeted for wind farm revenue last year was over $1.2 million while the actual revenue brought into the district was $753,649. Upon consulting the district’s contractors for the wind farm investments, they estimated the district could expect $226,000 in revenue this year.

While some of that drop is based on the anticipated depreciation over time, it also included a $500,000 supplemental payment that will no longer be provided to the district. 

One change within the budget is staff compensation which includes House Bill 2 funding from the state with a $4,000 raise for teachers with 3-4 years experience and $8,000 for teachers with five or more years experience.

On top of the state-funded raises, a district-funded $2,000 raise for teachers with zero to two years experience was added. 

Additionally, raises of 3% from the market midpoint were approved for auxiliary staff, instructional aides, clerical staff, counselors, special programs and administrators.

“The administrative staff is included with the teacher raises because the motivation to be an administrator decreases tremendously if you can make more being a teacher, and that would be the case if you didn’t make some adjustments to administrative staff salaries there,” Browning said Aug. 12.

The district is looking at options to improve its financial standing, one of which is to change the fiscal year from Sept. 1 through Aug. 31 to July 1 through June 30. Browning said a positive of the move would be to plan spending throughout the summer for the upcoming fiscal year. 

Browning said the move will require a lot of work from the district as well as approval from the Texas Education Agency. The district and board will continue to research and discuss the potential move throughout the year.

Other methods to help improve the district’s financial standing will be to improve enrollment through service and marketing, increase attendance rates, pursue grant funding, increase energy efficiency to decrease utility costs and review instructional resources for effectiveness.