According to the Community Impact, assistant superintendent Erich Morris said in an email announcement, “Given the funding associated with [House Bill 3], a drop in the district’s tax rate will not negatively impact MISD regardless of if/when the state makes cuts to district budgets.”
The ISD’s 2019-2020 tax rate is $1.3095 per $100 of taxable value. Meaning, on a property with $150,000 of taxable value, the tax bill would be about $2,000. A four-cent drop would save about $100 here.
If this decrease is implemented, the district has decreased its tax rate about $0.10 in two years.
Many different taxing entities scrambled last year to implement one last property tax increase above the new levels set by Senate Bill 2 and House Bill 3 before they went into effect. But since the governor’s disaster declaration, a loophole in Senate Bill 2 allows cities and counties to operate from the old limit rather than the new 3.5 percent one.
However, the loophole does not apply to school districts.
The other part of the equation, however, is appraisals. Those were set in January before coronavirus’ spread. Oftentimes, because of appraisal increases, the only way tax bills do not increase is if the effective rate (i.e. “no new revenue” rate) is adopted.
Magnolia ISD says it wants to provide relief to families during the current tough economic times and those that lie ahead. Morris said the ISD is able to do this because, “Thanks to the efforts of a fiscally responsible school board, MISD is in a favorable financial position.”
In the 2019-2020 budget, the school district pulled in over $68 million in revenue from “Local & Intermediate Sources” — of which property taxes constitute a large portion.
The tax rate will be set in August after a board vote.
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Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson is a senior reporter for The Texan and an Ohio native who graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2017. He is an avid sports fan who most enjoys watching his favorite teams continue their title drought throughout his cognizant lifetime. In his free time, you may find Brad quoting Monty Python productions and trying to calculate the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.