Seguin ISD adopts a decrease in tax rate for FY 2022-2023

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Cindy Aguirre

District officials explain how the decrease will remain a decrease despite outcome of November bond election

(Seguin) — Whether voters say yes or no to the Seguin ISD’s proposed $138.5 million bond issue in November, taxpayers will still see a decrease in the overall tax rate. That’s according to Anthony “Tony” Hillberg, the Seguin ISD’s chief financial officer. In fact, Hillberg says the overall rate for the coming fiscal year will welcome a three and a half cent reduction.

“The approved tax rate made up of two components, the M&O (maintenance and operations) tax rate is .8646. That’s 86.46 cents if you will and the I&S (interest and sinking) rate of .38 or 38 and a half cents for a total tax rate of $1.2496 cents and that represents a three and half cent reduction from last year,” said Hillberg.

The tax rate of $1.2496 per $100 of property valuation was officially approved Tuesday night by members of the Seguin ISD Board of Trustees.

Hillberg says this reduction can be explained by the fast rapid growth being experienced throughout the district.

“As far as the M&0 tax rate, that is where the savings is, and it’s associated with the legislative requirement now. The state actually dictates what a district’s maximum rate will be and that is based off of the local property value growth in the area. What they are trying to do is stabilize the assessment of taxes on any given taxpayer across the state and they do that by compressing the rate as necessary depending on how much growth a given area has had. So, in Seguin’s case, we’ve outpaced much of the state and as a result have experienced additional compression of the M&O tax rate to the extent of 3 and a half cents,” said Hillberg.

The news of a three and a half cent reduction in the tax rate is reportedly good news for the Seguin ISD especially with the timing of its multi million bond election coming up this fall. Seguin ISD Superintendent Matthew Gutierrez says the decrease means an overall less impact should voters say yes.

“So, this is certainly great news when we learned that our tax rate is going down three and a half cents. With this almost $140 million bond referendum, we are looking at a two cent increase and so, when you look at a two cent increase, three and a half cent decrease, there is still overall a decrease and what I want to remind people of is 2019 when we went out to voters back in 2019, we had shared that we were looking at a five cent increase and we’ve all seen how much growth is happening in Seguin ISD. There are developments almost any corner you turn, and we ended up only going up two and a half cents versus the five cents that we went out and asked for,” said Gutierrez.

Gutierrez says the compression of the tax rate in the Seguin ISD is again the result and just more evidence that the community is growing and the need for facilities and their improvement will be crucial to sustaining that growth in student population.

“We are going out and asking for a two cent increase but we are also asking our voters to keep in mind just the growth that is here now and that is continuing and I think we have all heard recent reports from both the city and the county about our projected population in the next five to 10 years and it’s exponential growth and that is certainly going to help us on the tax side as far as providing relief. If we continue to grow, we will hopefully continue to see tax relief come down the pipe just like we are seeing right now with that three and a half cent decrease,” said Gutierrez.

Topping the long list of proposed bond projects this fall is the construction of a new McQueeney Elementary School, $10 million for enhanced security measures districtwide, renovations at Barnes Middle School, the construction of a new Agricultural Science Center, the expansion of the district’s transportation department plus the construction of a new baseball, softball complex at Seguin High School. The proposed bond election, if approved, would only impact the tax rate at maximum increase of no more than two cents.

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