House Bill 3 (HB 3) Implementation: Tax rate compression for the 2020-2021 School Year

This letter is to inform you about tax rate compression of school district maintenance and operations (M&O) tax rates required under HB 3 for the 2020 tax year (2020-2021 school year). This notice does not apply to open-enrollment charter schools. 

1. Requirement to reduce tax rate. For the 2020 tax year, school districts will be required to reduce the tier one tax rate as defined under Texas Education Code (TEC), §45.0032. 
    
2. Texas Administrative Code (TAC). The agency has adopted 19 TAC, §61.1000, Maximum Compressed Tax Rate Calculation and Data Collection, to address the calculation of the maximum compressed tax rate. 
    
3. Agency to calculate and make available Maximum Compressed Tax Rates (MCR). In order to calculate and make available district’s maximum tier one tax rates the agency will be conducting a survey of local taxable property value growth through the Foundation School Program (FSP) system in the Texas Education Agency Login (TEAL). 
    
4. Survey open and close dates. The Local Property Value Survey (LPVS) data collection will open in the FSP system on July 18 and close on August 1. 
    
5. District data submission required. Districts will be required to submit the following:
1. the chief appraiser’s July 25 certified taxable property values from the certified appraisal roll under Tax Code, §26.01(a) or (a-1) for tax year 2019; and 
2. the chief appraiser’s July 25 certified taxable property values from the certified appraisal roll under Tax Code, §26.01(a) or (a-1) for tax year 2020; and 
3. the amount of value estimated to be lost due to the Local Option Homestead Exemption (LOHE), if applicable. 

         6. Approval of maximum compressed tax rate. Once the district has submitted the data to TEA and received approval of the submission through the FSP system, i.e. the district’s LPVS status is “approved”, the MCR may be considered final unless the district chooses to appeal the calculated rate. 

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Note from Omar: Superintendents and School Business Officials

Omar Garcia with BOK Financial Securities has a new release (Release 2 dated 6/26/2020) that is now available for download.  This new release deletes the 18-19 column and adds a 24-25 column.  Two new tabs have been added that you may wish to use – one dealing with the calculation of the 19-20 student counts that will be adjusted as a result of school closures and the other dealing with the ESSER funds (see Notes tab). There will probably be more to come, so as always, please stay tuned for any new developments.
Link:    https://www4.esc13.net/finance/

Note from Woody: I will soon be posting the 2020-21 LPE-DPE Side-by-Side Template (r2,wb2 (or Omar's latest) as I receive updated files from Omar and State Funding. As Omar says, "Stay Tuned".

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Note from Woody: I have posted the 2019-20 LPE-DPE Side-by-Side Template (r14 wb11 (or Omar's latest) as I receive updated files from Omar and State Funding.
As State Funding changes the Web SOF, I will updated the side-by-side template to reflect these changes. Be sure to use the latest revision of the template and Web SOF. 
As Omar says, "stay tuned".

This template is an "expansion" of Omar's templates The template will allow districts to compare "earned" DPE with TEA's Summary of Finance "payment" LPE to calculate "projected" over/under payment of Foundation School Funds. The template incorporates actual six weeks attendance data and M&O tax collections to "project" over/under payments. Be sure to import the latest Summary of Finance report from TEA, and your "most accurate projection" of M&O tax collections. Be sure to re-enter your previous and current six weeks attendance data (numbers will have changed!!) Remember these templates are an "as is" projection based on you current data. 

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Posting District's 2020-2021 "Proposed" and "Adopted" Budgets:

Posting your districts "Proposed" Budget and your districts "Adopted" Budget are still required. Please reference our templates page for "Proposed " Budget and "Adopted" Budget Templates and "Budget posting notice for setting tax rates". 
1) Notice of Public Meeting to discuss Budget and Proposed Tax Rate: (Form 50-280)
2) 2020-2021 "Proposed" Budget and "Adopted" Budget templates 

I have updated the templates to reflect changes from both the 85th Legislative Session and the 86th legislative Session. (See notes on templates).

___________________________________________________________________________________________

2019-2020 Tax Information Survey

The Tax Information Survey (TIS) for the 2019–2020 school year will be open for data submission June 1, 2020 and will close at midnight on August 31, 2020. If your district does not submit the survey by the deadline, your district’s state funding for the 2019–2020 school year could be adversely affected. Please do not submit any tax data related to the upcoming 2020 tax year (2020–2021 school year).

Please ensure that your district has completed and submitted the TIS using the online FSP System by August 31, 2020. Completing the survey is important because it allows the agency to use the most accurate tax collections data possible when we calculate 2019-2020 near-final Summary of Finances (SOF) estimates in September 2020. Your district will not have another opportunity to submit revised tax collections data for the 2019-2020 school year until the district submits its J1 schedule as part of its annual financial and compliance report. The J1 schedule tax collections will not be incorporated in the 2019-2020 SOF until April 2021. Compressed tax rates for districts which have adopted tax rates more than six pennies over their original compressed tax rate will be automatically adjusted.

The FSP System requires that a designated district approver, usually the superintendent, submit the TIS data to the TEA.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

2019-2020 Transportation Route Services Report

The 2019-2020 Transportation Route Services Report, through the web-based Foundation School Program (FSP) Module, is now open and available for completion. TEA requests your school district to promptly complete and submit this report to enable TEA’s process in finalizing the 2019-2020 Transportation Allotment amount. Please note that your 2019-2020 Transportation Allotment should reflect actual days the district was physically open and delivering instruction to students. The Transportation Route Services report should only reflect the actual days of operation and mileage driven up until the COVID-19 closure. Mileage driven for COVID19 related services should NOT be included in the Transportation Routes Services report, but should be included in the Transportation Operations Report. For more information, please visit the General State Funding FAQs for further understanding and clarification on COVID-19 related reporting items.

The annual deadline for submitting the 2019-2020 Transportation Route Services Report is August 1, 2020. This deadline date is published on the School Transportation Funding webpage and is also found in the School Transportation Allotment Handbook.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Bus Accident Report Survey Due August 31
TEA has created an online survey for use in reporting bus accident information.
The survey is available on the "TEA Bus Accident Reporting System" webpage.
Every school district and open-enrollment charter school must use the survey to submit its own individual report by August 31.
________________________________________________________________________________________

July 15: NIFA Application Deadline
The deadline to apply for the New Instructional Facility Allotment (NIFA) for the upcoming 2020-21 school year is July 15. The online application for funding is currently open until in the TEAL system’s Foundation School Program (FSP) application. There is an online NIFA training (four parts) located midway down thiswebpage.
________________________________________________________________________________________

Posting Districts Utility Usage:

The requirement for school districts to post their utility usage on the webpage was changed in this past legislative session. Here is the citation from government code:

SECTION 1.13.  Section 2265.001(a), Government Code, is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 2265.001.  RECORDING AND REPORTING OF ELECTRICITY, WATER, AND NATURAL GAS CONSUMPTION.  
(a)  In this section, "governmental entity" means:
      (1)  a board, commission, or department of the state or a political subdivision of the state, including a municipality, a county, or any kind of district other than a school district; or
      (2)  an institution of higher education as defined by Section 61.003, Education Code.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

2019-20, 2020-21 Pupil Projection Survey

Instructions for Submitting Attendance Projections

For the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 School Years

The Attendance Projections module will open for data entry beginning October 15, 2018, through December 12, 2018. All revised attendance projections must be submitted to the TEA by midnight on Wednesday, December 12, 2018.

Note: The FSP System is one of several applications available within the online Texas Education Agency Secure Environment (TEASE).  To access the FSP System, you must have a TEASE user name and password, and have applied for and been granted access to the FSP System, with the appropriate user role(s).  If you do not have a TEASE user name and password or have not applied for access to the FSP System, please see the instructions for accessing the system that are available on the following web page: http://tea.texas.gov/About_TEA/Other_Services/Secure_Applications/TEASE_-_Request_Access_Online/. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Important Note from State Funding:

Financial Hardship Transitional Program and Adjustment for Rapid Decline in Taxable Value of Property.
This letter provides guidance to districts and charter schools that are eligible for state funds under TEC Sec. 42.451 or Sec.42.2521. 
(LINK to letter from Leo Lopez)
LINK to eligible districts for Hardship of Rapid Decline Grant

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Note from Danny Sanchez, Transportation Director School Finance Division

The Foundation School Program (FSP) System will be available for input of the school year 2016–2017 Operations Services Report data on October 3, 2017. The due date for the report to be in Submitted status is December 1, 2017.

Please review the Instructions for Completing the School Transportation Operations Services Report, document before compiling data and filing the report in the online FSP System. The instructions can be found on the School Transportation Funding web page.

We highly recommend using “Internet Explorer 9” as your browser when entering data into the report.  Use of any other browser may result in an inability to open and access all needed data screens. If you have questions or if you need more information, contact the School Transportation Allotment program administrators in the Texas Education Agency's Office of School Finance: Danny Sanchez, telephone: (512) 463-9266, email: danny.sanchez@tea.texas.gov.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Special Education Funding by Instructional Settings Template:

I have posted a Special Ed. Template on our Templates Web Page. This template will allow the district to enter attendance counts from the "Superintendent's Report of Student Attendance & Contact Hours" in order to calculate "earned" revenue for each instructional setting. See Templates Page.