In his 14 years of public service, Arlington ISD school board member Aaron Reich experienced a property tax rate cut unlike any other this budget cycle.
Reich joined six other trustees in late September to approve the district’s lowest property tax rate in the last decade. Most of the property tax cuts homeowners will see are because of the Texas Legislature.
The reduced rate could influence the district’s debt management and cause trustees to increase the tax rate in the future, said Carla Martin, assistant superintendent of financial services.
The tax rate for the 2023-24 school year is $1.1156 per $100 of valuation – an almost 20-cent tax rate reduction. Arlington ISD’s 2022-23 tax rate was set at $1.3087.
A taxpayer with the average home in Arlington ISD would save $1,068.80 under the new rate compared to last year’s rate. Voters still have to approve a proposed $100,000 homestead exemption on school taxes in the Nov. 7 election.
The new rate is more than 3 cents lower than the no-new-revenue rate, which would bring in the same amount of revenue as the previous year. The no-new-revenue rate was $1.1484.
“That’s pretty significant,” Reich said.
Like Arlington ISD, Fort Worth ISD saw its biggest property tax rate cut in 16 years. Nearby Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD also saw a nearly 20-cent decrease in its property tax rate.
Legislators used nearly $12.6 billion of the state’s budget surplus to reduce property tax rates and offset the loss of property tax revenue. They did not provide additional new funding to schools.
Now, the school board and top administrators may have to adjust the timeline for issuing debt to pay for projects in the voter-approved $966 million bond program from 2019.
The bond was proposed when the district’s debt service rate — one of two figures that make the overall tax — was at 32.9 cents. It’s now fallen nearly 4 cents to 29.1 cents.
School board President Melody Fowler celebrated the decreased rate.
“We’re pleased any time we can lower the tax rate for our community,” said Fowler. “This is, clearly, good news for our taxpayers.”
How does this affect my school taxes?
The average home in Arlington ISD has an appraised value of $304,191, according to the Tarrant Appraisal District. However, only $198,293 of the value is used for taxes.
The new homestead exemption allows property owners to take $100,000 off their home’s appraised value. The school district would then tax only $98,293 of a home’s value.
The average property tax bill to Arlington ISD would be $1,096.56 — 49.4% lower than what the average homeowner paid in 2022.
Last year, the average home in Arlington ISD had an appraised value of $256,077 and only $205,459 was used for taxes. After a $40,000 homestead exemption, the school district taxed $165,459.
In 2022, that homeowner paid $2,165.36 in property taxes to Arlington ISD.
Matthew Sgroi is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.