I am the last person to defend budgeting practices from school districts but I do understand what their issue is. The problem is for the sub varsity and Jr. Hi games not varsity (The districts should have zero issues with a varsity gate. HI attendance= more money for ISD= more money for officials it sounds like a win win to me no budget issues). Lets take a big district with 25 Jr. Hi's. If the fees move up from $30 a game to $40 a game that is a 33% increase. So if I have a 7A/B and 8A/B that plays 8 games each half home half away 3 officials that is an INCREASE of 3*16*10= 480 per school just for football officials. You take on top of that the other sports (VB basketball) at the Jr. Hi level and it is easy to see that each Jr. Hi has to come up with an additional $1000 for officials just at the Jr. Hi level. School budgets are set in February of the previous year. Now the AD's have to go and ask for another 25K for officials. Small districts with only 1 Jr. Hi only have to ask for 1000 which is an easier pill to swallow. Plus small town Jr. Hi. games have a lot better paying attendance then big ISD's (I once did a Dayton jr hi game with easily 2000 people at it) and that money is not as regulated as big ISD's if you know what I mean.
Solution:
In January of every year each TASO chapter negotiates with the ISD's about what they are going to pay. What ever the answer is publish it to the membership and let them decide who they will independently contract with. Any deviance with this policy should result in severe punishment from both sides. If a school does not pay what the market rate is then they may not have officials it is not TASO's fault the ISD's should raise their rates or make their schools more attractive to call games at. It is not all about money when calling Jr. Hi games some things that ISD's could do to make their school more attractive to officials at a below market rate are:
Have water available
pay cash on the spot
play 2 games on one date instead of driving all the way out there for 1 game (principals claim they only want to play 1 game because of lights on the field, and to get the kids home to study/sleep on a school night which I understand)
Varsity coach only picks crews that call his games. (It amazes me why coaches do not do this more. My U, LJ, R, and 6man try to work every Thursday together for the past 5 years. We only call the 4 schools closest to our house. We just rotate between those 4 and 3 out of 4 of them are in the same district. I was picked for 14 games this year which on paper puts me in the top 25% of crews in the Houston Chapter. I have never called any of the 4 schools that I religiously call sub varsity for).
Like many of the other posts on here it is not about money. It is about professionalism and being appreciated. The ISD's could pay a lot less if they just acted with a bit of respect towards us. The budgeting issue is a big ISD problem not a small ISD problem.