GISD budget, tax rate on track for approval

Graham ISD will be taking the next steps to adopt its upcoming fiscal year budget as it works around a new schedule based on shifting fiscal year.

The GISD Board of Trustees is meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 3 at the Graham Learning Center at 701 Tennessee St. in Graham and hosting a public hearing on their budget and tax rate.

The district’s budget is split into local, state and federal funding. Local funding comes primarily from property taxes while state funding is calculated based on student attendance, with additional funding for students in special programs or other services. 

Federal funding is the smallest portion for the district and is to support special education services. 

The GISD tax rate is divided into two rates: the Maintenance and Operations (M&O) rate and the Interest and Sinking (I&S) rate.

The M&O rate funds the needs of the district such as employee salaries, classroom supplies, utilities and student transportation. The I&S rate is the debt rate reserved for long-term investments such as building schools, renovating facilities or making safety improvements.

In 2025, the board adopted the voter-approval tax rate of $0.9863 per $100 valuation, which was a slight decrease from the previous tax rate of $0.9888 per $100 valuation. No change to the tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year is being considered at the meeting Wednesday.

During last year’s budget planning, the district was looking at options to improve its financial standing. One method was to change the fiscal year from Sept. 1 through Aug. 31 to July 1 through June 30. 

Chief Financial Officer Gary Browning said the move would allow the district to plan its spending throughout the summer for the upcoming fiscal year. The move was approved by the GISD Board of Trustees during their meeting Oct. 8, 2025. 

“In June, we'll ask you to adopt the annual budget based on the estimated values and projected tax rates. That's really the challenge of having a July 1 fiscal year start date if you are projecting tax rates and property values, whereas in August, we have received certified values from the appraisal district and also, the state has given us our MCR for our tax rates,” Browning said in the May 13 school board meeting.

Browning said in a previous meeting that the fiscal year change has backed up most of the budget planning activities by two months from their usual timeline and that the order of process could be changed based on the availability of information.

“We won’t receive our maximum compressed rate (MCR) from TEA until July, and that’s after our budget year starts. So once we receive that rate, we add five cents to it, (and) that becomes our M&O rate. The I&S rate for bond and repayment is something we can deal with and predict,” he said. “The challenge moving forward with the I&S tax rate is that the state is starting to limit districts on what they can set based on what their debt is.”

The board is set to receive the proposed budget this week based on projections with the proposed tax rates which will be approved in August.

“In July, we will receive the certified tax rates and certified property values... and at that time we'll look at our budget, the budget that was adopted in June, and see if it's necessary to amend the budget to align more closely with those rates,” Browning said May 13. “It may be that in August we come back to you and say we need to adjust or amend the budget to sit more closely with those rates. In August, we'll also not only consider amending the budget, but adopt the tax rates for M&O and I&S.”