
Theyre still disappointed though. Clayton Downing is the executive director for the Texas School Coalition (TSC) an organization that brings together independent school districts that have an interest in improving the school funding laws for all school districts. The coalition is composed of 105 Chapter 41" school districts -- districts that are considered property wealthy and have to send money back to the state -- in Texas including Lewisville ISD. The coalition had hoped for a handful of actions by the legislature this session to help with school funding including a change in the golden pennies" allotment. Under House Bill 1 from 2006 the M&O tax rate went down to $1 though the state allowed districts to go up to $1.17. Of that Chapter 41 districts get four free or golden pennies where they dont have to send that money back to the state. Downing said those four pennies have saved districts the last three years. But to go up the remaining $0.13 districts have to have an election for any amount. Downing said one problem with that is the expense of having an election plus the struggle to get voters to agree on it. Downing had hoped legislators would increase the number of golden pennies to six without having to have an election and for a while it looked like it might happen. A component of HB 1 featured a plan where two extra pennies would have been provided.
