BOERNE — While Boerne Independent School District officials have approved a lower property-tax rate, it’s still expected to increase an average annual tax bill by $42.
While the school district saw a 32 percent increase in appraised values, hitting just under $14.5 billion, and a 21 percent increase in taxable value at just above $11 billion, the local appraisal district – along with many across the state – is seeing more disputes.
The new levy authorized last month, about $1.18 per $100 valuation, is just over 3 cents shy of the voter-approved rate of $1.22.
Had the district sought a rate just 4 cents higher, an election would have been automatically triggered by state law. However, the district retained a no-new-revenue tax rate for its maintenance and operations, meaning it will produce the same revenue as it did last tax season.
“(Superintendent Thomas) Price, our district executive team, and our board of trustees have worked extremely hard to once again lower the district’s tax rate for the fourth year in a row,” BISD Communications Director Bryan Benway said.
He added, “We have always been very fiscally responsible with taxpayer money, and the lowering of the tax rate continues that trend. We are grateful for the tremendous support from the community and are proud to have been able to lower the tax rate once again.”
While nailing down the average home price in the school district’s tax base has proven to be difficult, —the school district straddles three Kendall, Comal and Bexar counties — BISD officials estimated the average market value of a home in its service area increased 19 percent, rising from an average of about $447,00 to roughly $533,000.
However, due to homestead exemptions and tax freezes for disabled and older residents and appraisal disputes, the average taxable value only increased 3 percent from about $413,000 to $425,000.
This mirrors what Kendall County and Boerne officials saw in their own tax-rate assessments where initially skyrocketing appraisals mellowed out as the tax rolls came in.
While the new tax rate will see the average resident in the district’s boundaries shelling out an additional $42 come tax season next year, the increase has dropped from the district’s tax rate last year that resulted in a $94 hike to the average property owner.
To mitigate this increase, BISD Place 7 trustee Rich Sena urged residents to pay their taxes before the deadline to take advantage of the 3-percent reduction offered as an early payment incentive.
Sena also expressed frustration with the socalled the Robin Hood act, often referred to as recapture, that allows the state to disburse funds from taxes collected in property-rich school districts to poorer schools in other jurisdictions. The action grew out of a San Antonio lawsuit decades ago to create equitable funding for all Texas school districts.
BISD officials have consistently lowered the M&O rate to avoid recapture, evading the state mandate last year, but likely will see about $7.5 million in recapture this year due to appraisal hikes.
“Over 10 percent of the maintenance-and-operation tax rate that our taxpayers are paying is going to Robin Hood,” Sena said. “That’s happening all over the state. So that alone should tell legislatures they need property-tax compression. Why should taxpayers have to pay a tax rate when it doesn’t go to education?”
He added, “What happens is appraisals go up, people pay more in property taxes, the state takes the money and local district gets the blame. That’s not right.”
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