Homeowners in the Clint Independent School District boundaries likely will see a significant increase in the district’s portion of their 2024 tax bills after the board adopted the highest tax rate possible without having to go to voters.
The Clint ISD board on Wednesday unanimously approved the voter-approval rate of $1.13 per $100 property valuation – the highest it could adopt without triggering an election. This will cause a $166 a year increase on the district’s tax bill on the average $196,814 home, Cline told El Paso Matters.
The district’s current tax rate is $1.1375 per $100 valuation. District officials compared that to the newly adopted rate of $1.1352, saying that taxpayers will probably still see an increase in their tax bills because of their appraisal values.
“So it’s not because of what the district is doing,” Jessie Cline, the district’s chief financial officer, said during the meeting.
That statement is misleading, because Texas law requires governments – including school districts – to take into account the impact of rising values on property taxation.
The law requires governments 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. In Clint ISD’s case, the no-new-revenue rate was $1.06 per $100 of valuation.
The school board set the higher rate of $1.13 so that it could bring in more property taxes than it did a year ago. That rate is the most it could levy without seeking approval from voters under Texas law.
In addition to raising more money from property that was on the tax rolls last year, the Clint district also will benefit from new construction in the district. While home valuations impact the tax bill, so do the tax rates.
In its public tax notice, the growing district reported about $67.2 million of new taxable property this year – property that wasn’t on the tax rolls last year. That will generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional revenue for the district.
The increase in district taxes will be reflected in the 2024 tax bills that go out in October and are due in January.
Clint ISD serves just over 10,000 students in Clint, parts of Horizon and East Montana. The district had about 1,660 employees during the 2023-24 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency.
The board Wednesday also voted unanimously to approve a $140.3 million budget with a $21.6 million deficit for the 2024-25 school year.
The district’s budget represents a 4% decrease over the last school year’s $146.6 million budget, which included a $30.2 million deficit, according to the adopted budget for the 2023-24 school year.
This year’s budget includes $8.7 million for a three-year COVID-19 relief fund “spend down plan,” which will be eliminated after three years if there are no increases in state funding, according to the presentation.
It also includes $12.9 million in one-time expenses for projects such as replacing furniture, construction and maintenance, Cline said.
Clint ISD Superintendent Juan Martinez told El Paso Matters the district had already set money aside in its reserves to cover these expenses and said its regular operating budget would be balanced without them.
“Some of those projects were approved three years ago,” Martinez told El Paso Matters. “Our fund balance was very solid so we are drawing it down for projects. For example, the repaving of Mountain View High School.”
At the end of the 2022-23 school year, the district had enough reserves to keep running for 113 days, according to the presentation. It did not say how many days it currently has left but noted the district is committed to maintaining at least 90.
Texas school districts need to have enough reserves to run for at least 75 days to get an A in the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas.
Clint ISD has had an A rating for at least the last five years, according to the Texas Education Agency.
The post Clint ISD homeowners to see significant increase in district tax bills appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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