2025 General Fund Budget Development
FY2025 Budget Development has begun! Austin ISD will continue to compile and share information on data impacting the budget development for the upcoming year and priorities received from our community, committees & Board of Trustees.
Check out Austin ISD’s FY2025 Budget Community/Committee Engagement Schedule to participate and converse in the budget development.
Recapture
Passed by the 86th Texas Legislature in 2019, House Bill 3 (HB3) made substantial changes to Austin ISD's Chapter 49 (previously Chapter 41) recapture payment. House Bill 3 amended the Education Code to transfer certain sections from Chapter 41 to Chapter 49, and revised formulas used to determine excess local revenue under the FSP by adding Subchapter F, Chapter 48, Education Code, Section 48.257, Local Revenue in Excess of Entitlement. Texas Education Code, Chapter 49, provision recaptures local tax dollars from property-rich districts and redistributes the funds to property-poor districts; often referred to as “share the wealth” or “Robin Hood” plan.
Austin ISD is considered a property-rich school district. In the FY2025-26 adopted budget, the district estimates that $715.5 million of local property tax revenue will be subject to recapture and remitted to the state under Chapter 49. By comparison, in recent years a majority of Austin ISD’s locally generated property tax revenue has been redirected through the state’s recapture system.
Figure 1: In FY2026 Adopted Budget
Austin ISD’s estimated recapture payment is $715.5, with a projected student enrollment of 72,303 from the October 2024 PEIMS Student Snapshot. The payment will be just under half of the district’s adopted expenditure budget of $1.70 billion. From FY2000-01 to FY2024-25, Austin ISD will have paid the state of Texas approximately $8.3 billion.
Austin ISD’s Recapture & Enrollment Comparison Over Years
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 Adopted | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recapture | $266,073,630 | $403,324,244 | $540,290,792 | $665,251,676 | $639,599,384 | $706,687,156 | $762,800,496 | $900,910,768 | $664,839,391 | $777,158,149 | $715,523,373 |
| Enrollment | 83,270 | 82,766 | 81,346 | 79,787 | 80,911 | 74,982 | 74,602 | 73,384 | 73,681 | 72,272 | 72,303 |
Top 10 Texas District’s (Chapter 49) Recapture Payments
In FY2023–24, Austin ISD remitted $467.8 million more in recapture payments than the second-highest contributing district, Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD. Notably, Austin ISD’s total recapture contribution exceeded the combined payments of the next five highest-paying districts.
