During a presentation at the May 17 MISD board meeting, Jason Bird, the district’s deputy superintendent of business, operations, accountability and technology, gave a budget update to trustees and discussed the proposed lower rate.
During fiscal year 2020-21, the average single-family home in MISD was valued at $377,932. FY 2021-22 will have the average single-family home in MISD valued at $490,400, a 29.76% increase.
However, Bird noted that House Bill 3, passed in the 2019 legislative session, compressed the maintenance and operations tax rate for the district, reduced state aid given to the district and increased the amount the district has to pay in recapture. Recapture refers to Texas legislation that requires property-rich school districts, such as MISD, to pay a portion of locally collected property tax revenue to the state, which then distributes the funds to property-poor districts.
Bird said that with property value growth, the maintenance and operations tax rate for the district will have to be mandatorily compressed. Meanwhile, the district is expected to pay $3.77 million in recapture during FY 2022-23, up from $2.87 million in FY 2021-22.
Federal funding given to the school district allowed it to forgo the voter-approved tax rate election held in 2021, Bird said. The district was still able to drop its total tax rate by almost $0.10 in FY 2021-22 through the federal dollars instead.
Another tax rate decrease is expected for FY 2022-23, Bird said.
“With the mandatory compression for all that property value growth, we anticipate a $0.05 reduction in our M&O tax rate, and our debt service rate will stay where it is,” Bird said.
He proposed the maintenance and operations budget for the school district would decrease from $1.0067 per $100 valuation to $0.9567 per $100 valuation. The district’s debt service fund would remain at $0.37 per $100, for a total tax rate of $1.3267 per $100 valuation.
“Obviously we will look to lower our debt service rate as is fiscally prudent in the future,” Bird said.
The MISD board of trustees is expected to approve the FY 2022-23 budget at its June meeting.
“It’s up to the state to fund public education, so it’s up to everyone in this room to contact their Legislature and say, ‘You support public education, please fund it,’” Board Member Stephanie O’Dell said.
