Despite the decreased rate, GISD homeowners may see an increase to their annual property tax bill due to a rise in property values, according to GISD information.
Explained
At an Aug. 18 meeting, the GISD board of trustees approved a maintenance and operations, or M&O, tax rate of $0.6931 per $100 valuation, which is $0.0038 lower than the FY 2024-25 M&O tax rate of $0.6969 per $100 valuation.
The interest and sinking, or I&S, tax rate will remain at $0.3575 per $100 valuation, making for a combined tax rate of $1.0506 per $100 valuation.
The M&O tax rate funds the day-to-day operations of a district, including salaries, benefits and operational costs, while the I&S rate may only be used to repay debt.
The impact
A homeowner with an average taxable value of $379,767 could expect to pay $3,989.83 in property taxes for FY 2025-26, according to information provided by GISD. This would be an increase of $199.12 in annual property taxes compared to the previous tax rate and average taxable home value of $359,513 in FY 2024-25.
The background
In a Nov. 4 election, Texas voters will decide whether to increase the statewide homestead exemption for school district taxes from $100,000 to $140,000 under Senate Bill 4. With voter approval, SB 23 would raise an additional homestead exemption for adults with disabilities or seniors 65 years and older from $10,000 to $60,000.
“That’s really good news for taxpayers,” Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Hanna said at the Aug. 18 meeting. “That also means that we’ll be paying less recapture back to the state because we’ll be collecting less property taxes from our taxpayers. So it’s a win-win.”
Under the updated homestead exemptions, taxable property values in the district would increase by $328 million, or 1.43%, Hanna said. Without the higher homestead exemptions, GISD taxable property values would’ve risen by $2.3 billion, or 10.01%, according to district documents.
