Residents living in McKinney ISD boundaries can expect to pay a lower tax rate this year.

The district board of trustees lowered the tax rate by $0.10165 to $1.48835 per $100 valuation during a meeting Aug. 27. In fiscal year 2018-19, residents paid $1.59 per $100 valuation.

The tax rate reduction comes after a school finance reform bill was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 11. House Bill 3 adds $6.5 billion in public education funding for teacher raises and a full-day pre-K program. 

This law requires MISD to lower its maintenance and operations, or M&O, tax rate from $1.17 per $100 valuation to $1.06835 per $100 valuation for FY 2019-20. This lowers the amount of property taxes collected by the district; however, the decline in revenue would be made up by additional funds from the state.

"The M&O tax rate will be individually compressed from the $1.06835 downward based on individual district property value growth above the state average," MISD Chief Financial Officer Jason Bird said in an email. "[The] TEA [Texas Education Agency] is still working out how that will be calculated."

MISD’s recapture payments will also be reduced under the new law from a projected $11.45 million to about $1.05 million in the 2019-20 school year, according to Bird.