Bond adviser

Key facts

• Current holder: PFM Financial Advisors (with a co-adviser added in January 2026).¹
• Contract: first won through a 2015 request for proposals; made open-ended, with no end date, on March 26, 2020, on the consent agenda.¹
• Not reopened to other firms since 2015. The 2020 item called bidding “not a legal requirement.”¹ State law does not require it.²
• Next-bond advice (July 2026): $525–685 million with a 6¢ debt-tax increase.³ On a $460,292 home, the average taxable value, that is about $276 a year (our math).⁴

In short

The bond adviser is an outside firm. It helps plan every school loan. The same firm has held the job since 2015, and the job has not been reopened to other firms since then.¹ It is paid per loan sale, so it earns more when the district borrows more.⁵

Why it matters to your tax bill: its advice shapes how much the district borrows, and the debt tax repays that.

Related: bond team · 2026 01 22 bond adviser contract · next bond

Layer 1: What this office does

The bond adviser is an outside firm. It tells the district how much it can borrow, when to sell bonds, and when to refinance. The board makes the decisions. The adviser shapes the options the board sees.

Layer 2: How it is checked

• The board approves the contract.
• How the adviser is paid: per bond sale, and more for bigger sales. The 2020 contract: $30,000 plus $0.45–$1.10 per $1,000 borrowed, capped at $225,000 per sale.⁶ The 2026 contract: $25,000 plus $0.65–$1.00 per $1,000, 25% more for refinancing, and no cap stated.⁵ It is paid only if the sale closes, from the bond money, not the regular budget.⁵ This means the adviser earns more when the district borrows more.
• The contract has had no end date since 2020 and has not been reopened to other firms since 2015.¹

Layer 3: Key advice it brought

• Next bond size: $525–685 million with a 6¢ increase.³ The citizen committee’s project list was about $708 million over four years.⁷ See next bond size.
• The district repeated the 6¢ figure in its own news post the next day. It said the debt tax would go from 33 cents to about 39 cents per $100 of value.⁸ This is the district passing on the adviser’s estimate. It is not a second, separate check.
• Ratings: the adviser told the board each rating notch down costs about “10 basis points … or 0.1%” in interest.⁹ See Bond ratings.

The district’s side

The district says state law doesn’t require bidding for financial advisers, and that keeping one adviser keeps the work consistent.

What the law requires. School purchasing rules do not cover professional services, and the law’s list includes “fiscal agent” work. A district may also hire a financial adviser on qualifications, the way it hires architects and engineers. We found no law that says how often the job must be reopened. So keeping one firm is a choice, not a broken rule.²

Questions to ask

• Will the district post the total fees paid to its bond adviser, including fees paid at closing?
• How often does the board reopen its adviser contract?

Changes to this page

• Nov. 4, 2026: Added the district’s own report of the debt-tax estimate, and what is still unknown about it.
• Nov. 2, 2026: Added questions to ask.

What you can do or watch next

• Watch the adviser’s fees in each new bond sale.

What we don’t know yet

• Total fees paid to the adviser. The district’s check list shows only $36,500 to PFM from 2020-21 to 2025-26, because sale fees are paid at closing from bond money.¹⁰ Those fees are folded into each sale’s “costs of issuance” (for the 2026A sale, $870,000 for all advisers, lawyers and other costs).¹¹
• Whether other districts reopen adviser contracts on a schedule. We have not checked this yet.
• Whether 6¢ would still be enough if home values stay flat. The adviser’s slides assume values grow in later years. A new estimate from the adviser, or the district’s next debt plan, would show it.³

Numbers marked “our math” are our estimates, not official figures. The notes show the inputs and the steps.

Footnotes

1. Board packets Mar. 26, 2020, p.108 (packet) and Jan. 22, 2026, p.104 (packet). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. Texas Education Code §44.031(a) and (f) (school purchasing rules do not apply to professional services, “including services of an architect, attorney, certified public accountant, engineer, or fiscal agent”); Government Code §2254.002–.003 (accountants, architects, engineers, surveyors and appraisers must be picked on qualifications, not price; financial advisers and bond lawyers are not on that list). ↩ ↩²

3. Board packet July 30, 2026, pp.34, 38, 39 (packet). ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Our math. Inputs: the 6¢ debt-tax increase in the adviser’s July 30, 2026 slides (note 2) and the 2026-27 average taxable home value of $460,292 (board packet, Aug. 6, 2026, page 234). Step: $0.06 × $460,292 ÷ $100 = $276.18, about $276 a year. ↩

5. Board packet Jan. 22, 2026, p.104 and contract Exhibit B (packet). ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Board packet Mar. 26, 2020, p.108 (packet). ↩

7. Same packet, pp.18–30. ↩

8. Leander ISD News, board briefs post, July 31, 2026: “Financial advisors estimate that funding the proposed bond recommendation could require an approximately 6-cent increase to the district’s Interest & Sinking (I&S) tax rate, moving it from 33 cents to approximately 39 cents per $100 of taxable property value.” (news.leanderisd.org, Board Briefs) ↩

9. Board meeting video, July 30, 2026, at 1:57:53; quote checked against a second machine transcription of the audio. The quote comes from the meeting video’s automatic captions. ↩

10. Leander ISD check register, fiscal 2020-21 to 2025-26: PFM Asset Management $31,500; PFM Financial Advisors $5,000. ↩

11. Series 2026A official statement, sources and uses. ↩