A Voter Approved Tax Rate Election (VATRE), if approved by LCMCISD voters, would allow the LCMCISD district to receive an estimated 3 million—annually—in additional funding. Our district will be granted $2 million in additional state revenue and approximately $922,179 in local revenue, totaling $3 million a year. 

There are many reasons as to why LCMCISD has called a VATRE. Our district is currently in the bottom quarter of all school districts for per student funding in the state. Locally speaking, LCMCISD’s starting teaching salary is $5,000 below West Orange-Cove CISD and most Beaumont area schools. 

A common misconception is that VATRE will cause taxes to be raised, but this is not true.

“The VATRE is a voter approval election asking for additional tax to be collected from the taxpayers,” LCMCISD chief financial officer Hollie Fregia said. “Even though the district is requesting approval to collect an additional 12 cents from the taxpayers, the overall impact will result in a lower tax rate than what was collected in the prior year. The tax rate will be decreasing from $1.2967 to $1.0612. I looked at our historical data dating back to 1991, and the lowest tax rate was in 2009 at $1.14667.” 

LCM is currently operating with a deficient budget. LCM plans to use this extra money to fulfill safety and security requirements as required by state law, staff salaries to ensure quality staff, and make much needed campus facility repairs and improvements. 

Nov. 7 will be the official election day and even students (18 and over) will be able to vote. A vote for VATRE will cause home tax rates to decrease to $1.06. A vote against will still cause home tax rates to decrease to $1.06 but our district will not receive the approximately $3 million (or greater in the future) amount annually from the state. This makes it important that everyone in our community vote yes if they are able to.