Permanent School Fund: Win-Win
The biggest hunk of property tax goes to public education. There is a win-win solution, where children are educated and taxpayers are not taxed out of their homes. The Permanent School Fund is a state fund that receives rents on public lands and sale of minerals (oil & gas from the gulf). Funding of public education in Texas should --and has, in past years -- come from this fund. When property taxes were added to the school funding, of course magically expenses went up. It's like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow had been found! Last year, there was $55.6B in the fund. If there are 1,027 districts, that works out to be about $55M per district. A more equitable distribution might be allocating the funds per student. Here are some unofficial, pissed-off taxpayer calculations: $55,624,100,000 in the Permanent School Fund. There are 5,371,586 students in Texas. That would be $10,355.25 per student. There are 6,170 students in Lockhart ISD. That would be $63,89...