Megan Navarro
DRIPPING SPRINGS — Come Sept. 22, the Dripping Springs ISD Board of Trustees will consider a 0% increase in the district’s tax rate for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
The proposed total tax rate is $1.1052 per $100 valuation, consisting of the maintenance and operations (M&O) rate of $0.7552 and the interest and sinking (I&S) rate of $0.3500. According to the district, the rate will generate sufficient tax collections to cover the district’s debt obligations, including the new debt resulting from the passage of the May 2025 bond.
Required by the Texas Property Tax Code, the board must adopt a tax rate by written ordinance, resolution, or order in a public meeting before the latter of Sept. 30 or the 60th day after the date the certified tax roll is received by the taxing unit. Prior to adopting a budget or tax rate, the board must schedule a meeting to discuss and adopt the budget and publish notice of that meeting at least 10 days, but no more than 30 days, prior to that meeting.
The proposed M&O tax rate is the same as the current rate, but lower than the no-new-revenue rate, as calculated by the Hays County Tax Office.
“The tax rate hadn't changed from the prior year … Because of the homestead exemption going up from 100,000 to 140, the compression was basically nothing. It's like a 0.88% increase from certified values from the prior year to this year,” explained DSISD Chief Financial Officer Randy Rau at the board’s Sept. 15 agenda review meeting. “As such, the rate stays the same and a lot of the mandatory language that's involved in the resolution has come out because the effective or … the no-new-revenue rate is actually higher than the rate we're adopting because they're comparing, again, $100,000 homestead [exemptions] to 140.”
The tax rate will be brought back for an official vote at the board’s regular meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 22.
