Fort Worth ISD board lowers tax rate, for now, to mitigate impacts of high home values
Property owners who live in the Fort Worth school district will be taxed at a lower rate than last fiscal year after school board members finalized a rate this week that aims to provide some financial relief amid rising home values.
The school board on Tuesday approved a tax rate of about $1.06 per $100 of property value; last year’s rate was about $1.28 per $100 of property value. This rate is below the no-new-revenue rate, which would have created the same revenue as the prior year.
The 22-cent reduction went beyond an original proposal of a 20-cent reduction. The decision was made with the caveat that the tax rate may have to be increased later on.
“For next year and the following, we may potentially have to increase the tax rate, which we can, to accommodate the debt payments we’ve obligated ourselves to,” said Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria, the district’s chief financial officer. “In general, as the property tax rate decreases, district revenue would decline overall. Just a reminder that we did pass a budget in the deficit this year.”
Board President Camille Rodriguez was the lone dissenter, noting that she trusted Arrieta-Candelaria’s original recommendation.
“I know you have studied it and have been working long hours to put the district in the best position for our future,” Rodriguez told Arrieta-Candelaria.
Texas lawmakers this year approved an $18 billion deal that includes more than $12 billion to reduce school property tax rates by 10.7 cents for homeowners and business properties, in addition to a $100,000 homestead exemption. Voters must also approve this in November for it to go into effect, which district officials expect to happen.
“We are assuming that that homestead exemption will pass in November. We have no expectation that it wouldn’t,” Arrieta-Candelaria said.
If the homestead exemption is approved by voters, a person with a home value of $300,000 that remained this value from last year would pay $769 less in school property taxes at the current tax rate of $1.28 per $100 of property value, according to Arrieta-Candelaria. This baseline does not include rising home values or the district’s new, decreased tax rate.
When focusing on the new tax rate of $1.06 per $100 of property value, coupled with the $100,000 homestead exemption, a homeowner with a $300,000 house would pay about $2,120 in taxes to the district.
A recent report from the Texas Real Estate Source showed home values tripled between February 2016 and May 2023 in east and southeast Fort Worth neighborhoods like Polytechnic Heights and Stop Six.
“People are hurting. Property taxes have skyrocketed. If there’s something that we can do as a school district to be able to help people to where they’re not having to pay exorbitant taxes… I’m absolutely all for that. I also don’t want to be naive and have to pay the piper later on,” Trustee Quinton “Q” Phillips said.
This story was originally published August 25, 2023 at 5:45 AM.
