DALLAS—Board members for the Dallas Independent School District approved a property tax hike election Thursday night that could generate $126 million annually for DISD.
On November 6, during the general election, voters will decide whether or not to raise the district’s maintenance and operating tax rate from $1.04 to $1.17.
If you include Dallas ISD’s current debt service tax rate of $0.24, the final combined District tax rate would be $1.41. That tax is imposed on property owners within Dallas and hasn’t been changed in a decade.
Taxpayers over the age of 65 would not be impacted.
The election comes as the district gears up to pay the State of Texas a percentage of the money it collects through property taxes for the very first time in history. The state is recapturing funds from a handful of districts to even the funding playing field for “property poor” and “property rich” districts throughout the state.
If voters say yes to the property tax hike, DISD would owe the state around $65 million in the first year. If the hike fails, the district would owe around $40 million.
By year five, Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said it could owe nearly $500 million. “It’s a bit frustrating,” Hinojosa said. “We believe we have a good case, but the taxpayers will have to decide themselves.
Not only that, Hinojosa said that the state’s funding to the district has diminished over the years.
Three years ago, Hinojosa said the district received an estimated $300 million from the state. He says that number has shrunk tremendously to less than $100 million.
So, getting less and owing more puts the district in a bind, especially if it is operating with a $1.4 billion-dollar budget.
It plans to use the new money generated from the proposed tax hike to largely better the quality of early education, and to give raises to personnel.