On the eve of the first day of school for Killeen ISD students, board members unanimously approved a proposed property tax rate of 87.58 cents per $100 of value for fiscal year 2024 to fund the fiscal year 2025 budget.
After some short-term adjustments to the maintenance and operating interest rate as well as the interest and repayment interest rate, Chief Financial Officer Kallen Vaden presented the department’s calculations to the Board of Directors for review.
The Texas Education Agency calculates the district’s Tier I maintenance and operations tax rate based on property tax values of 61.82 cents. The district adds a Tier 2 enrichment, or “golden” pennies, of 5 cents to the Tier 1 rate to arrive at 66.82 cents.
The debt service rate is to be 20.76 cents, which corresponds to a tax rate of 87.58 cents.
In her presentation, Vaden presented a slide comparing the tariffs with the previous year’s figures.
In fiscal year 2023, the tax rate was $1.0166. In fiscal year 2024, the rate decreased to 85.01 cents.
This year, the increase represents an increase of 2.57 cents per $100 of the taxable value of property on the Bell County Tax Assessor’s list.
Another slide showed the comparison of tax increases for this year with an average taxable property value of $151,870. The 2023-2024 tax increase should be $189, or $15.75 per month, Vaden pointed out.
Before approving the proposed tax rate, board members approved the proposed budget for the General Fund, School Nutrition Fund and Debt Service Fund, totaling $561,768,533.28. With total revenues of $546,209,111.16, the final figures show a deficit of $15,519,422.12.
Board members have worked closely with the district’s finance department to eliminate a $16 million deficit in the general fund. The $4 million deficit in the general fund will be offset through a targeted use of the Expenditure Fund balance.
The remaining deficit of $12.9 million comes from the School Nutrition Fund, which will be offset by the balance of the Intended Use Fund.
“The Texas Department of Agriculture estimates that we need to cover three months of operating costs for the School Nutrition Fund. So we are over that. There is also a plan to purchase equipment. So this is a conscious use of the funds from the expenditure fund,” Vaden explained to the school board.
Before the meeting begins in private, the board members also set the time and date for the public hearing on the budget and tax rate: It will take place on August 27th at 6:00 p.m. as part of their regularly scheduled board meeting.
Superintendent Jo Ann Fey proposed postponing the agenda items scheduled for the August 20 workshop meeting to the August 27 meeting.
The board members unanimously agreed and therefore cancelled the workshop session entirely.
