Little Property Tax relief thanks to Abbott and Phelan (Houston: coupon, transfer to)

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by blameyourself

I suspect the nabobs would rather give lucrative contracts to their cronies then support the citizenry.

Well, that’s been SOP for that ilk since Reconstruction.
Nothing’s changed even if there’s an “R” after their name.

[blameyourself]

Originally Posted by WRM20

Here's the HISD budget for the year that is ending this week https://www.houstonisd.org/site/hand...01-20-2023.pdf

There is a budget for each school, based on average daily attendance as required by state law. There are also pages with a breakdown of the number of employees by classification. Keep in mind that HISD has 270 schools. There have been efforts to close some of them for efficiency, but every time a proposal is made, the affected areas come after the school board with knives drawn, looking for blood.

Yep, and it gives none of the info I asked you about. That's not transparent. Why isn't the public privy to specifics on salaries? Try again.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by blameyourself

Yep, and it gives none of the info I asked you about. That's not transparent. Why isn't the public privy to specifics on salaries? Try again.

Link to page with HISD salary schedules https://www.houstonisd.org/salarytables

The teachers at a school will be a mix of experience levels. Since the budgets are approved before the exact teachers are known, an average of salaries is used for budget purposes.

[blameyourself]

Originally Posted by WRM20

Link to page with HISD salary schedules https://www.houstonisd.org/salarytables

The teachers at a school will be a mix of experience levels. Since the budgets are approved before the exact teachers are known, an average of salaries is used for budget purposes.

Like I said, not transparent. It's just funny that people like you ask others for details on how to curb spending and yet you can't provide details on what they're spending money on. Taxpayers have every right to know the salaries of teachers, administrative staff, and officials. They do it in California so there's no excuse why that information can't be out there in Texas. Those tables are worthless.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by blameyourself

Like I said, not transparent. It's just funny that people like you ask others for details on how to curb spending and yet you can't provide details on what they're spending money on. Taxpayers have every right to know the salaries of teachers, administrative staff, and officials. They do it in California so there's no excuse why that information can't be out there in Texas. Those tables are worthless.

How are they worthless? Surely you aren't going to look at a list of 25,000 Houston ISD employees and nitpick them one by one. Those tables tell you what teachers get paid and what other staff gets paid. There is not a budget out there that lists every employee and their salary.

I am still waiting to hear what sorts of expenditures can be cut from school districts in general. And I am talking about amounts that would make a difference, not complaining about some random $50 item.

[blameyourself]

Originally Posted by WRM20

How are they worthless? Surely you aren't going to look at a list of 25,000 Houston ISD employees and nitpick them one by one. Those tables tell you what teachers get paid and what other staff gets paid. There is not a budget out there that lists every employee and their salary.

I am still waiting to hear what sorts of expenditures can be cut from school districts in general. And I am talking about amounts that would make a difference, not complaining about some random $50 item.

As stated, not in Texas but they are available in other states and should be available for all taxpayers to see. It's one of the things that got my wife and many of my friends to stop blanketly voting for increases for education in California. It really opens your eyes when you see how much waste is out there, especially with some of the players that aren't in the trenches with their salaries of $200K to $500k. There's no excuse for it or not making this information transparent. Appears you can't provide that so you really shouldn't be so insistent on people showing you how to cut spending.

https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/all/

Transparency!

[Romping Willy Billy]

Paradoxically, the cutting of faculty and teacher pay in half along with the lowering of heat in the winter and the lowering of air conditioning in the summer will raise the grades of children across the board. We all know this. Children are built to endure. Every child in the United States should know how to speak three languages before graduating from high school. They aren't near as incapable as we baby them to be.

[albert648]

Originally Posted by WRM20

How are they worthless? Surely you aren't going to look at a list of 25,000 Houston ISD employees and nitpick them one by one. Those tables tell you what teachers get paid and what other staff gets paid. There is not a budget out there that lists every employee and their salary.

I am still waiting to hear what sorts of expenditures can be cut from school districts in general. And I am talking about amounts that would make a difference, not complaining about some random $50 item.

I'm still waiting for your justification as to why schools need more of taxpayers' money. And the canceled checks to show that you personally contributed towards that gap above and beyond your ISD tax.

Somewhere between 20 and 50% of government payrolls at every level is dead weight. It's on the person demanding more money to justify and account for every penny of it, not on the people footing the bill to justify why they should keep more of their money.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by blameyourself

As stated, not in Texas but they are available in other states and should be available for all taxpayers to see. It's one of the things that got my wife and many of my friends to stop blanketly voting for increases for education in California. It really opens your eyes when you see how much waste is out there, especially with some of the players that aren't in the trenches with their salaries of $200K to $500k. There's no excuse for it or not making this information transparent. Appears you can't provide that so you really shouldn't be so insistent on people showing you how to cut spending.

https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/all/

Transparency!

The salaries in Texas can be requested in an FOIA request. The highest paid person in Houston ISD is the Superintendent, who made something like $350,000 this year, which is pretty reasonable for someone in charge of an organization with 25,000 employees and a $2 billion+ budget. For non-teaching positions, the pay is somewhat below what a similar position pays in the private sector. The HISD salaries may be on a website somewhere, but I am not going to look for it because that data is not particularly relevant to this discussion.

In the budget I linked to, there is a page for each school showing the number of teachers and other staff for that school. On other pages, there are lists of the total number of employees of each type. Starting on page 711, there are budgets for each department.

Originally Posted by albert648

I'm still waiting for your justification as to why schools need more of taxpayers' money. And the canceled checks to show that you personally contributed towards that gap above and beyond your ISD tax.

Somewhere between 20 and 50% of government payrolls at every level is dead weight. It's on the person demanding more money to justify and account for every penny of it, not on the people footing the bill to justify why they should keep more of their money.

Prove that there is 20 to 50% deadweight. That's ridiculous and unprovable.

[blameyourself]

Why should anyone have to request anything? Just put the damn salaries out there and people can decide for themselves. There's no reason to hide it or bury it. You seem to be content with ambiguity and that's not going to work here.