Georgetown ISD Tax Vote Deadline Is Aug. 17 | GTown Buzz

Howdy, Georgetown. 👋

Here it is: the week everything happens at once. The school board faces a deadline Monday on a tax measure that could land on your November ballot, The Junction finally opens Tuesday, and the kids go back Wednesday. If you only read one issue of this thing closely, make it this one. Let's go.

Georgetown ISD has until Monday, August 17 to decide whether to call a voter approval tax rate election, or VATRE, which would put a school tax increase in front of voters this November. That deadline falls on the board's last meeting before school starts, so Monday night is the moment.

What is actually being proposed. A 6 cent combined increase to the district's tax rate, going from $1.0506 to $1.1106 per $100 of valuation. The maintenance and operations piece (day to day costs) would rise 9 cents, while the debt piece would drop 3 cents. The district says that nets out to roughly $8 more per year for the median homeowner with a homestead exemption. Residents 65 and over with a homestead exemption would see no increase at all, since those taxes are frozen.

Where the money goes. The district says it would raise about $8.4 million net, and all of it is earmarked for pay: 3 to 4 percent raises for teachers and 2 percent for other staff, which officials say works out to $2,000 or more per teacher depending on experience. One wrinkle worth knowing so the ballot language does not confuse you in November: it will cite a larger figure, around $19.4 million, because Georgetown is a recapture district and a chunk of that goes back to the state.

Why now. Superintendent Devin Padavil says the district has cut more than $8 million in expenses over the past two years and has run out of room. That is the same budget pressure behind delaying two new campuses, Jessie Daniel Ames Elementary and S.C. Marshall Middle School, by a year. A district survey of 401 residents in late June found 48 percent initially supported the increase, rising to 58 percent once respondents heard the details, and 68 percent said they did not think GISD has enough funding for daily operations.

If you have thoughts, now is the window. The district takes feedback through its website, board members' emails are public, and Monday's meeting is open. Board president James Scherer put it plainly: the timeline is short.

We will tell you what happens next week.

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Two things for the food column this week.

First, Perky Beans Coffee and PB Cafe has opened its Georgetown location at 2651 E. University Ave. It is a family owned operation with its first shop in Leander, and the Georgetown build runs brunch into dinner service, so it is not strictly a morning stop.

Second, if you are heading to The Junction on opening day Tuesday, here is who you will find in the food hall: Sweet Lemon Kitchen (a third location for the Square favorite), Dough Go Pizza, King's Chicken Wings making its first move outside Waco, Taconmaye, JABS Smashburger, and Shawarma Point. Three full bars, plus a speakeasy called The Nest.

Go early or go late. Everyone in town has this on their calendar.

This week the spotlight goes to a group rather than a person, because roughly 12,000 Georgetown ISD students walk back into classrooms Wednesday morning, and the people meeting them there have spent August getting rooms ready on their own time.

It is worth saying out loud in the same issue as the tax story: the entire point of that proposed $8.4 million is teacher and staff pay. Whatever you think about the tax rate, the debate is about whether Georgetown can keep the people who teach here from getting recruited away by districts that pay more. That is not an abstraction. It is your kid's third grade teacher.

So let's do something with this. Hit reply and tell me about a Georgetown teacher who made a difference for your family. Name them, tell me why. I will run the best ones in a future issue, and I will make sure the teachers hear about it.

Before the first bell, this town showed up. Georgetown ISD partnered with the Texas Vaccine Institute for a back to school vaccine clinic on Aug. 1, with low cost options for uninsured families, and the following Saturday the Carver Center for Families handed out free backpacks and school supplies. Quiet, unglamorous work that means a bunch of Georgetown kids walk in Wednesday with everything they need. That is a good town.

Last week I asked what you were most excited to try at The Junction, and the wings and the pickleball courts are running neck and neck.

This week, two ways to reply. Nominate a Georgetown teacher (see above), or tell me this: should GISD put the tax increase on the November ballot? I am not going to tell you how to feel about it, but I would genuinely like to know how this town is thinking. Hit reply.

That's the Buzz. If this was useful, forward it to one neighbor. That is genuinely how this thing grows. And if someone sent it to you, you can subscribe free at gtownbuzz.com.

See you on the Square, Armand

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