Socorro ISD superintendent outlines Proposition A, says measure would shift cents within tax rate to shore up operations and reserves

Jim Vasquez, superintendent of Socorro Independent School District, told the Socorro City Council on Oct. 2 that Proposition A, the district’s voter-approval tax-rate election on the November ballot, would reassign 12 cents within the school tax rate to support day-to-day operations, technology replacement and facility maintenance.

Vasquez said the measure would raise the maintenance-and-operations (M&O) portion of the tax rate from 66 cents to 78 cents per $100 of taxable value and reduce the interest-and-sinking (I&S) portion from 39 cents to 27 cents; the district’s total tax rate would remain $1.05 per $100 of valuation. "It’s not for me to decide, or it’s not for the board to decide, it’s for the voters to decide whether we can raise this tax rate," Vasquez said during his presentation.

Why it matters: Vasquez described a multi-year budget decline that left the…