HOUSTON – Oct. 10, 2019 – The Board of Trustees approved the lowest property tax rate in 20 years on Tuesday when they adopted a 2019 total tax rate of $1.43 per $100 valuation – down 8 cents from last year’s rate.

The amount is based on the combined 97-cent Maintenance and Operations tax rate and 46-cent Interest and Sinking tax rate, which is used to pay the debt service requirements on outstanding bonds.

 “I know our neighbors have been asking us when we’re going to go down, so now all of us can go back and happily tell our neighbors that we have lowered your tax rates,” President Rhonda Newhouse said during the meeting.

The 5.3 percent tax rate decrease follows the Texas Legislature’s passage of House Bill 3 earlier this year, which changed the way public schools are funded.

Annually, the district proposes a tax rate when the next year’s general operating and debt service budgets are approved in the spring, but the tax rate is not approved until fall, after the Harris County Appraisal District provides the certified property appraisal rolls.

Tax bills will be mailed to all district households in the next week.