The new school finance law, passed this year by the Texas Legislature and signed into law by the governor, may enable the Rockdale ISD to drop the current tax rate by more than four cents.
Trustees adopted 2019-2020 budgets in their regular monthly meeting last Wednesday and, while the actual tax rate, won’t be adopted until a later session, it appears a rate decrease is forthcoming.
CAUTION—Genella Korenek, Rockdale ISD chief financial officer, said the district is still “working the numbers” but currently calculates the tax rate to support the new budget will be $1.3184.
The current rate is $1.36.
Korenek cautions taxpayers just because the tax rate is probably headed down that doesn’t mean tax bills will follow suit.
Large increases in taxable valuations were reported during the spring by the Milam Appraisal District.
Values of single family homes, as a class, increased an average of 12.79 percent as the AD maintained many dwellings has been “below market value” for years.
BUDGET—Trustees adopted a budget reflecting $14,736,606 in revenue and $14,182,555 in expenditures.
“Those numbers, including the preliminary tax rate, were calculated under the old system, before the new law went into effect,” she said. “We will have to re-figure and come back to the board later to adopt a revised budget for 2019-20.”
Supt. Denise Monzingo addressed the brighter revenue prospects in the new budget as a result of this year’s legislation.
“The legislature has done some really nice things for the Rockdale ISD,” she said. “There’s going to be a pretty sizable increase in what we’re going to receive from the state.”
Dr. Monzingo said it appears the increase will allow the district to “give some pretty good raises, after only being able to give small raises in past years.”
“Our staff has worked hard and they deserve it,” she said. Dr. Monzingo said the brighter financial situation should enable the RISD to make needed repairs and possibly do more in the areas of transportation and technology.
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