By Brittany Kelley KYLE — The Hays CISD Board of Trustees approved the 2024 tax rate at its Aug. 26 meeting.
Agenda documents state that the tax rate would be $1.1546 per $100 valuation for the 2025 fiscal year. The following lists the breakdown of the total:
• $0.6669 maintenance and operations
• $0.4877 for the principal of interest on debts (I&S) According to trustee Raul Vela Jr., the maintenance and operations rate will tax a $100,000 home approximately $2.37 annually.
Chief Financial Officer Randall Rau stated that the maintenance and operations tax rate is 2/10 of a penny less than last year, while the debt service stayed the same.
“Over the past seven years, we’ve been able to decrease our overall rate by a little over $0.38,” said Rau.
Rau also stated that the reason the district cannot set a low tax rate, such as $0.5, is because there is a “max tax effort” required per state.
“Our property values have increased, so a lesser tax rate multiplied by higher values does generate more local tax revenue, but what that means is the state is not kicking in as much as they did the prior year, as well. So, even though it makes it look like our tax dollars are going up, our overall state amount is not.”
The board meets next at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 16.
