Homeowners in the Canutillo Independent School District boundaries will likely see a significant increase in the district’s portion of their 2024 tax bills after the board adopted the highest tax rate possible without triggering an election.
The Canutillo ISD school board unanimously voted Tuesday to adopt its voter-approval tax rate of $1.1552 per $100 property valuation — the highest it could approve without going to voters. This will cause an increase of $281 on the average $282,482 home.
District officials in a news release published Thursday said homeowners would likely see an increase in their tax bills because the El Paso Central Appraisal District increased home valuations this year, but did not mention that the board set a rate that allowed the district to pull in significantly more property tax revenue.
The district’s executive director of financial services, Cristina Pulley, during the Tuesday meeting said the tax increase happened “because the value of properties are higher, so they are being taxed at a higher value, not because our tax rate is higher.”
Learn more: How are my property taxes calculated? 7 things to know about the complicated process
That statement is misleading because while the adopted tax rate is half a penny lower than last year’s rate, the board could have adopted a lower tax rate since the district is collecting more property tax revenue due to the higher valuations and new home construction.
While Texas law requires school districts to account for rising property values when they adopt a tax rate, it also requires them to tell voters the “no-new-revenue” rate – the tax rate needed to generate the same amount of revenue from property that was on the rolls last year and this year. The district’s no-new-revenue rate is $1.0674 per $100 property valuation – 9 cents below the rate the board adopted.
The district initially expected to increase the debt portion of its tax rate by 2 cents after voters in May approved a $387 million bond proposal, Pulley said, but was able to reduce it by paying a $2.6 million defeasance – a financing tactic that essentially annuls the debt.
This allowed the district to keep the same interest and sinking rate of 40 cents per $100 valuation, which is used to pay off the district’s debt, Pulley said.
See also: Canutillo ISD approves $2.75 million budget deficit, no pay raises
The increase will be reflected in the 2024 tax bills that go out in October and are due in January.
Canutillo ISD’s boundaries include Canutillo, Vinton, Westway and parts of Northwest El Paso. The district served just over 5,900 students and had about 960 employees during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency.
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