Monday, April 29, 2024
The Granbury School Board has voted unanimously to publish a proposed property tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year.
The total proposed property tax rate of $1.0496 per $100 valuation reflects an almost four-cent reduction ($0.0392) from the current property tax rate of $1.0888 per $100 valuation.
The public will be able to weigh in and the board will have time to consider lowering the rate even further before trustees adopt a budget and property tax rate for the 2022-2023 fiscal year at its regular meeting scheduled for Aug.22.
By law, the board cannot raise the published proposed property tax rate without having to start the public notification process over again, but it can choose to lower it.
Under the proposal for the $82.4 million budget, the Maintenance & Operation, or M&O, portion of the property tax rate will be $0.8546 cents per $100 valuation. Currently it is $0.9438, about nine cents higher.
The proposed Interest & Sinking, or I&S, portion of the property tax rate will be $0.195 cents, a five-cent increase from the current rate of $0.145.
According to GISD Chief Financial Officer Emmett Whitefield, the M&O budget is formula-based but more flexibility is allowed with the I&S budget.
Texas House Bill 3 set the formula-based Maximum Compressed Rate. It is the lower of the state compressed tax rate or the local compressed tax rate, Whitefield said.
GISD’s local compressed tax rate provides taxpayers with the lowest of these two calculations, he stated. However, the state has a “limit on local compression” and that limit is $0.8046.
The district’s lowest MCR will be at $0.8046 for the 2022-2023 school year, the chief financial officer said.
Whitefield said that “five golden pennies” are in addition to the M&O rate, bringing that rate to $0.8546, a reduction of $0.0892.
The board can elect to increase the I&S side by $0.05 to $0.0195, he said, which will result in an overall reduction of $0.0392 in the total tax rate.
Based on certified property values, the board will adopt $0.8546 as the M&O rate. Trustees will have the flexibility to set the I&S rate. That rate must be able to meet the district’s bonding obligations.
According to Whitefield and Superintendent Jeremy Glenn, adding five cents to the I&S budget would save taxpayers $820,495 based on preliminary values in the 2022-2023 school year.
With the reduction of the M&O rate by $0.0892, the board could use that reduction on the I&S side to pay off debt early.
Glenn stated that during the recent school bond election, which failed, voters said they felt that the school district had too much debt and that they wanted it paid down.
“We could restructure our debt and pay it down significantly quicker while at the same time still reducing our operations side by four cents, giving taxpayers a four-cent overall tax reduction,” he said.
Trustee Mark Jackson noted that property appraisals rose significantly statewide this year.
“The reality is, all the property values went up,” he said. “In some cases, way up this year. So, we can talk about a rate reduction, but let’s be honest here: our taxes are going up.”
He continued, “So, the decision we’re going to be faced with is, yeah, we can pay off our debt earlier if that’s what the public wants, or we could provide more tax relief, giving that additional four cents back in the form of a reduction.”
Glenn said that GISD has “the lowest school tax rate with a district of 7,500 or more kids that’s growing in the state of Texas. Our tax rates are incredibly low.”
