Hays CISD sets 2020-21 tax rate

The Hays CISD board of trustees voted unanimously Aug. 17 to accept the proposed tax rate of $1.4037 per $100 of assessed property value for the 2020-21 school year.

The rate is a 0.9638% increase over the no-new-revenue tax rate, or the rate the district would need to produce the same amount of tax revenue as the previous year.

"What happens is you have a proposed rate and then you have what's called a no-new-money rate, or—what it used to be called was the effective tax rate," CISD Chief Financial Officer Randall Rau said. "Our effective rate as calculated was $1.39030. It was an increase of just a little more than a penny."

The tax rate per $100 of property is $0.064 less than the 2019-20 rate, which contributes to a $0.1340 decrease to the tax rate over the past two years.

HCISD's maintenance and operations rate will be $0.9060 for the coming year, down from $0.97 last year. The interest and sinking rate will be $0.4977, the same as last year's figure.

Certified property values for the school district within Hays, Caldwell and Travis appraisal districts were also approved during the meeting.

Values were up 11.36%, or $1,001,626,874, as compared to the 2019 tax year and increased from $8,817,762,539 to $9,819,389,413.

The increased valuations are what allows additional revenue to be created while decreasing the tax rate.