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SCUC ISD budget workshop: trustees signal preference for 41¢ I&S rate; staff outline $8M escrow defeasance option
Summary
Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD administrators presented certified values, fund-balance forecasts and debt-service options at a budget workshop and received a nonbinding board preference for a 41¢ I&S tax rate for 2025–26.
Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District administrators briefed the Board of Trustees during a budget workshop on certified property values, projected revenues, fund balances and debt-service options, and sought trustee direction on setting the I&S (interest-and-sinking) tax rate for 2025–26.
Administrators presented updated certified property values (noting a roughly 1.7% change overall in taxable value, with most district value in Guadalupe County and growth in Bexar County) and summarized state legislative changes affecting local revenues and exemptions, including references to Senate Bill 4 and ongoing guidance from TEA about Senate Bill 2. Staff said the district’s general fund is balanced in the proposed budget and estimated fund balance at the start of 2025–26 at just under $53.5 million, equivalent to about 124 days of operating reserves (district policy CE local targets 90 days / 25%).
The central focus was the debt-service (I&S) tax rate. Administrators presented two primary options: keep the I&S rate at the current 47¢ or reduce it to 41¢. They described how either path would allow the district to meet required debt payments while using some excess funds to pay down debt early.
Staff detailed a proposed financial maneuver for the 2020 bond series sold as taxable refunding: establishing an escrow-to-maturity arrangement that would require an up-front investment of about $8 million to fund an escrow account, which would be invested to pay specified later maturities of the 2020 bonds through 2045. Officials said that, under current market assumptions, roughly $8 million invested now could avoid roughly $16 million of future debt payments on that series — effectively leveraging present earnings on the escrowed funds. Administrators characterized the calculation as illustrative and dependent on market conditions and counsel review.
Trustees discussed trade-offs. Staff said that if the district set the I&S rate at 41¢ for 2025–26, the district could use roughly $8 million of excess funds to implement the escrow strategy and still deliver a larger immediate tax break to an average homeowner (estimated savings about $453 next year in the 41¢ scenario versus $342 if the district stayed at 47¢ while using a larger defeasance). Staff noted an illustrative bond scenario (a hypothetical $215 million bond issue) and explained that selling all bond authorizations at once is not required and may be staged to manage rate impacts; market interest-rate assumptions and property-value changes would alter projections.
Board members gave a nonbinding “pulse check” in the workshop: several trustees expressed support for reducing the I&S rate to 41¢ to provide taxpayer relief while preserving a path to pay down debt early and plan for a potential May 2026 bond election. Staff said formal actions related to certified values, debt defeasance/escrow authority, tax-rate calculations and the election order will be on the Aug. 18 packet and that, per state law, any tax rate set above the voter-approval tax rate will require a roll-call vote recorded by trustee.
No formal budget or tax-rate votes were taken in the workshop. Administrators said they will finalize materials for the Aug. 18 meeting and bring the debt-defeasance language and tax-rate calculations for formal board action.
