The Spring ISD board of trustees unanimously voted Oct. 13 to lower the district’s overall tax rate by 4 cents after certified taxable property values exceeded projections from the 2015-16 budget.

The new tax rate is $1.47 per $100 valuation, which includes $1.04 for the maintenance and operations fund and $0.43 for debt service payments. The 2015-16 budget projected a $1.51 per $100 valuation tax rate.

This year’s budget included increased salaries for teachers, expanded transportation services and funding for the development of an in-district disciplinary alternative education program. SISD Chief Financial Officer Ann Westbrooks said the lower tax rate will still provide the district with the same amount of revenue.

“Hopefully we’ll attract more developers to develop in our district,” Board Member Ron Crier said. “This will help give them an [incentive] to employ people from our area.”

Although the overall tax rate has decreased, the approved amount is 15 percent higher than the effective tax rate, Westbrooks said.

“The effective tax rate simply says how much does our tax rate need to be to gain the exact amount of property taxes that we collected in the prior year,” Westbrooks said.

SISD has lowered its overall tax rate by 10 cents in the last two years. A person who owns a home valued at $100,000 will see a two-year decrease of $187 on his or her tax bill with the district’s lower overall tax rate, Westbrooks said.

The tax cut follows a 17 percent increase in overall property values for 2015-16 in the district’s service area. ExxonMobil, which has relocated its corporate headquarters to master-planned community Springwoods Village, is SISD’s highest valued property with a $1.04 billion evaluation, Westbrooks said.

“We are very pleased to be able to decrease the school district’s tax rate, [which has helped] offset the increase in appraised values and resulting increase in property taxes that the Spring community has recently seen,” Westbrooks said.