What’s happening
The board adopted a property tax rate of $0.9233 per $100 valuation for fiscal year 2024-25 during an Aug. 12 special meeting. The new tax rate is about 0.15% lower than FY 2023-24’s tax rate, which was adopted at $0.9247.
In the same meeting, board members called for a voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, to be held in November.
Voters will be asked to ratify the adopted rate for the addition of three “golden pennies,” according to a district news release. The additional pennies would generate about $6 million in funding for day-to-day operations of the district and would not be subject to recapture.
Any registered voters residing within GCISD’s boundaries will be able to cast a ballot in the election. They will be asked to vote “for” or “against” the proposition, according to the news release.
To learn more about the upcoming VATRE, visit www.gcisd.net/vatre.
Quote of note
“I fully support putting this on the ballot to make sure it passes, and to stand above others and to prove that we are a district of distinction,” board member Kathy Florence Spradley said before the board voted Aug. 12.
Breaking it down
Certified property values received by the district were about 5% less than what officials estimated when the budget was adopted in June, Chief Financial Officer Derick Sibley said.
“As such, the [maximum compressed tax rate] actually increases because our values did not increase as much,” he said.
The maximum compressed tax rate is provided by the Texas Education Agency after the district submits its certified property values to the agency. The district anticipated a maximum compressed rate of $0.6257 in June, but the TEA assigned a rate of $0.6569.
This caused the maintenance and operations rate to increase from what officials anticipated in June to a total of $0.7369.
The interest and sinking rate makes up the other half of the overall tax rate and decreased by nearly 5% compared to last year, according to a staff presentation. The interest and sinking rate was adopted at $0.1864.
