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Bastrop ISD CFO previews 2025–26 budget process and warns school choice proposals pose fiscal risk
Summary
Chief Financial Officer Mike White outlined the district budget timeline, noted a historic state surplus, and flagged proposed education savings accounts and school choice proposals as major uncertainties for the district’s 2025–26 planning.
Mike White, Bastrop ISD chief financial officer, presented the district’s early timeline for the 2025–26 budget and summarized state legislative activity that could materially affect district funding.
White said the state’s recent revenue picture remains strong but highlighted policy uncertainty. He reviewed last session’s modest per‑campus safety funding and said the major statewide proposal now under discussion is expansion of education savings accounts (ESAs). White described the ESA proposal that passed the senate as authorizing roughly $1 billion for parental choice accounts and noted the Senate bill’s suggested allocations and special provisions for students with disabilities and homeschoolers.
White told the board the district is watching both the House and Senate as competing funding and tax relief proposals emerge and recommended conservatism in current budget planning. He ran through milestones for the district’s local budget process: staff and department requests over the coming weeks, a draft budget presentation to the board in April, final adoption in June and tax rate certification in August. White said the district expects preliminary property‑value information in April and certified values by July 25, both of which will shape final numbers.
On legislative particulars, White said some proposals would deliver tax relief (homestead exemption increases or rate compression), while others would change the composition of state funding; he warned that a broad ESA program could shift state resources and create per‑student funding volatility for districts if parents move funds out of the public system.
Board members asked about prospects for increasing the basic allotment and changing funding from average daily attendance to enrollment; White said he had seen limited traction on those ideas but would report as bills develop. Trustees also emphasized budgeting for student services and MTSS (multi‑tiered systems of support) amid prior local cuts.
The presentation was informational; no board action was taken.
