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COLUMBUS — The Columbus Independent School District board of trustees, in the Monday, Aug. 24 meeting, approved its budget with a deficit of over half a million dollars, and a 4.4% tax rate decrease for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, which starts Oct.
Budget deficit
The district factored in a $633,395 deficit to its $23.3 million budget this year, according to Superintendent Dr. Chris Carpenter. A deficit budget means that the amount of expenditures exceeds the amount of revenue.
Carpenter said the deficit accounts for increases in teacher compensation, insurance premiums and maintenance costs and for any unanticipated staffing costs to meet federal or state program mandates.
“We’re trying to make sure that we’re keeping the good people here in Columbus and trying to compensate them,” Carpenter said.
Columbus ISD also adopted a deficit budget last year of $474,575. According to the Texas Association of School Business Officials in April, 44% of school districts in the state were running deficit budgets halfway through the 2025-2026 fiscal year, a decrease from the midpoint a year prior.
Carpenter said the district plans to make up for the deficit by reducing expenditures and potentially collecting higher than projected revenue throughout the fiscal year.
Any unanticipated large expenditures may prompt the school board to consider an amendment to pull funds from the district’s reserve funds, or savings for emergencies and large projects. Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Demers said the district currently has 127 days’ worth of reserve funds, which is above the 90-day standard.
Carpenter said the budget otherwise “stayed pretty close to the same” as the last fiscal year. The adopted budget increased about 2% from last fiscal year and calculated a rate of $14,589 in expenditures per pupil, compared to last fiscal year’s $14,357.
Tax rate
The adopted 2026-2027 fiscal year property tax rate is $0.7292 per $100 valuation, a 4.4% decrease from last year’s rate of $0.7630. The rate is comprised of $0.6229 for maintenance and operations and $0.1063 for debt service. The board adopted the same debt rate as last year, higher than the minimum, in order to pay forward on its 2024 bond.
This rate will generate $9,394 in local revenue per student, an increase of $321 per student. Taxes due on the average residence increased $106, or 9.9%, from $1,073 to $1,179.
The average market value increased 3.0% from $306,917 to $315,992. The average taxable value of residences also increased this year by 15.0% from $140,655 to $161,684.
The approved budget and tax rate information for Columbus ISD is viewable online at columbusisd.org/apps/pages/ business/.
