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    FINAL BOND TAX IMPACT

    The total impact of the Bond 2023 voter-approved program has been updated to reflect the final Board approved tax rate on August 28, 2023. The below estimated tax impact is based on an average home value in Calallen ISD of $140,489. While the value of your home may be more or less than the average, this amount was used to help you better understand the average impact for all homes in the school district. The final total impact of the Bond 2023 voter-approved program is $10.40 per year, for the average home. Property owners ages 65 and older who have applied for and received the Over 65 homestead exemption will see NO TAX increase over their frozen dollar amount as a result of these bonds. 

    Tax Impact

    **Changes in Texas property tax laws for school districts occurred after the Bond election. The overall tax rate declined 38 cents year-over-year and the homestead exemption increased to $100,000. The average homeowner will pay $655 less in property taxes for 2023, despite the Bond increasing the I&S tax rate by 0.74 cents. 

    Tax Impact

     

    HISTORY OF BOND TAX IMPACT

    The voter education materials communicated a 3.26 cents I&S tax rate increase for Proposition A. When calculating the initial tax impact, the bond financial advisor assumes that all propositions will pass. The total tax rate increase needed is then calculated using the total bond funds of all propositions, and then weighted out to the individual propositions based on proposition bond dollars. After the election, the bond financial advisor updates the calculations based on the voter-approved propositions. 

    Tax Impact History

     

    PUBLIC SCHOOL TAXES & CISD TAX RATE HISTORY

    Public school taxes involve two figures, which divide the school district budget into two “buckets.”

    • The first bucket is the Maintenance and Operations budget (M&O), which funds daily costs and recurring or consumable expenditures such as teacher and staff salaries, supplies, food, gas and utilities. Approximately 84 percent of the district’s M&O revenue goes to teacher and staff salaries.
    • The second bucket is the Interest and Sinking budget (I&S), also known as Debt Service, and that is used to repay debt for longer-term capital improvements approved by voters through bond elections.

     

    Proceeds from a bond issue can be used for the construction and renovation of facilities, the acquisition of land and the purchase of capital items such as equipment, technology and transportation. I&S funds cannot by law be used to pay M&O expenses, which means that voter-approved bonds cannot be used to increase teacher salaries or pay rising costs for utilities and services.

     

    Due to the 86th Texas Legislative Session and House Bill 3, Calallen ISD has experienced M&O tax rate compression since 2018. During the 88th Texas Legislative Session in 2023, Calallen ISD experienced additional M&O tax rate compression. During this time period, the M&O tax rate dropped from 1.17 per $100 assessed value down to 0.7695 per $100 assessed value, an overall 38.3 cent tax rate decrease.  On an average home value in Calallen ISD of $140,489, the 38.3 cent tax rate decrease results in an estimated tax savings of $538.08.

    Recent Tax Rate Changes

     

     

    PROPERTY VALUES & SCHOOL FUNDING

    The taxable appraised value of a property is not related to or impacted by a bond proposition or the property tax rate. The appraised value of property is determined by a separate entity called an appraisal district. For Calallen ISD, this is Nueces County Appraisal District. The property tax rate is set by a taxing entity, such as CISD. 

     

    Due to the 86th & 88th Texas Legislative Sessions and House Bill 3, Calallen ISD is subject to property tax compression. This means that as appraised values increase, M&O property tax rates decrease providing property tax relief to taxpayers. As seen in the section above, CISD's property tax rate has experienced an overall 38.3 cent tax rate decrease due to this legislation and overall property value growth within our District boundaries. If you are experiencing higher property taxes, this is due to the growth of your appraised value (controlled by Nueces County Appraisal District), not the tax rate set by CISD Board of Trustees.

     

    Additionally, Calallen ISD does not receive more funding when appraised values and/or property tax revenues increase. The Texas school finance system, under which the state sets the M&O portion of CISD’s property tax rate and provides school funding, is setup such that an increase in property tax revenue to the District does not garner an increase in school funding. Instead, it is a balancing act, and an increase in property tax revenue is offset by a decrease in state school funding, resulting in no additional funding for the District. 

     

     

    FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

    Calallen ISD has actively deployed various debt management practices, including bond refunding and bond defeasance programs, which aim to lower interest rates and paydown bond debt prior to scheduled maturity to reduce the cost of voter approved bonds. Such actions have resulted in $14.95 million of direct savings for District taxpayers since 2010.

     

    The state annually analyzes districts’ fiscal responsibility through the FIRST rating system to distinguish the level of a school district’s financial performance based on certain uniform criteria. Calallen ISD was assigned a FIRST Rating of “Superior Achievement” and the District’s score was 100 out of a possible 100. Click here for more information on Calallen ISD's FIRST Ratings.