Mike White, BISD's chief financial officer, said this is due to an influx of school funding from House Bill 2.
What they're saying
If the district were to have a tax rate that raised the same amount of funding as the previous year, BISD would have to cut its rate significantly, White said.
He said this would likely have a "catastrophic" impact on the school district.
"There's a popular analogy of filling up a bucket or a glass," White said. "Your glass is defined by how many kids are there. Taxpayers make up a certain portion, the state fills up the rest of the glass. So those two things kind of move hand in hand. One goes up, the other goes down, typically. In this case, this year, it doesn't apply. Our tax rate's the same."
The details
The same total tax rate as was approved for fiscal year 2024-25—$1.0679 per $100 of valuation, made up of a $0.6669 maintenance and operations rate as well as a $0.4010 interest and sinking rate—will be considered for 2025-26 by the district's board of trustees at a future meeting.
The district's tax rate is made up of two pieces, the M&O and I&S rates. The M&O partially funds district operations with local property tax revenue, while the I&S rate services the district's debt payments, such as bonds.
What's next?
White said in an Aug. 19 meeting that the rate will remain the same due to property values, which have not grown enough in the past year to exceed the threshold for tax rate compression by the Texas Education Agency.
This is due in large part to an anticipated increase in the homestead exemption, as well as a "cooling off" of the local housing market.
A measure to increase the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000 will go to voters in November.
