MISD Tax Rate Drops 32 Cents

Second Decrease In Two Years

For the second time in as many years, home owners in McKinney will receive tax relief when property taxes come due.

“State legislators have to be commended for relieving home owners by using other funds to make up for the revenue lost by these tax cuts,” said Cody Cunningham, assistant superintendent of McKinney ISD communications following Monday night’s school board meeting.

The board voted during this meeting to accept a 2007-08 tax rate of $1.517 per $100 assessed value, down from $1.84 for the 2006-07 school year. The previous year (2005-06), taxes were assessed at a rate if $2 per $100 assessed valuation. This new tax rate is made up of $1.04 for Maintenance and Operations and the remaining 47.7 cents for debt service. (Last year ’s rates were $1.841 overall with an M&O of $1.37 and Debt Service of 47.1 cents.) 

The board discussed whether to accept $1.04 or $1.03 as the M&O portion of the taxes. The pennies are discretionary as set forth by the state which allows for the assessment of four “super pennies” to be used as needed by the school board. School districts can collect up to four extra cents added to the tax rate to help them build up their fund balance.

“I see the fund balance as a savings account. It allows us extra money to use for purchasing land and other extra things we want to do,” said trustee Lynn Sperry.

The school’s fund balance are extra funds outside the usual budget, monies the district has been conservative at spending each year. Over the past few years, the district has underspent on its budgeted spending, leaving extra cushion in the fund balance.

Board member Mark Rude proposed collecting only three cents of the state-allowed four cents in the interest of saving tax payers an extra penny on $100 taxable value of a home.

“Historically, our financial staff has done a good job of keeping us three to five percent below budget. In fact, last year, we generated a surplus for the district,” Rude said in supporting his argument for a collection rate of $1.03.

Sperry responded that her past experience on the board proves to her that the board is wise to collect the full four “super pennies” allowed by the state.

“I was on the board one year when we made the mistake of trying to be too conservative. We didn’t take what we should have,” Sperry said. “I don’t want to overtax our constituents, but I also don’t want to leave any of the four cents on the table.”

While one penny may not matter much to an individual tax payer, Cunningham explained, those pennies add up for the district.

“When you do the math, it may mean only an extra $10 a year in taxes on a $100,000 house,” Cunningham said. But all those extra $10 for every $100,000 assessed value in McKinney can really add up for the district’s bank account.

“There are many variables you can’t plan for such as increasing utility costs and other things in a district growing as fast as we are,” Cunningham said.

Board president Wade Johnson said with a district growing as fast as the MISD, the board couldn’t afford to leave any state funds, not even a penny, unused.

“We have the opportunity to maximize our funds from the state, the benefit being that we’ll have expenses that might effect the fund balance,” Johnson said.

Cunningham explained that the new lower state tax rate had to be phased in over the past two years, thus explaining the 16 cent step-down last year followed by roughly 32 cents this year.

In other spending and projected growth business Monday night, the school board:

• Approved just over $6.5 million for renovations to McKinney High School, to be completed under the eye of PBK Architects. Some of the updates will occur as possible during the school year, while others will have to occur after school is out in spring 2008. “The campus will be shut down in the summer. The [repairs] will be a challenge but I don’t see it as disruptive,” Crowe said. “As we build new campuses, we have to remember to update our existing ones.”

• Passed the District Improvement Plan during its meeting Monday night, based on the MISD’s accountability summary. This plan looks at the district’s 2006-07 Texas Assessment of Skills Knowledge (TAKS) test results and sets up a district-wide plan for improvement on those scores and rankings. Individual campuses will present their own Improvement Plans later this fall.

  The district finished the 2006-07 school year with an overall 95 in Reading, 85 in Math, 96 in Writing, 86 in Science and 95 in Social Studies. In order to receive a district-wide Recognized rating, 75 percent of all students would have to pass an area. The MISD lots its Recognized rating by not hitting 75 percent of recognized ratings on Science.

  “All districts in Collin County that lost their Recognized rating lost it because of Science,” said Dr. Virginia Cotton, assistant superintendent of Curriculum.

  The district finished the 2006-07 school year with nine campuses receiving an Exemplary (top) rating, five being Recognized and 10 hitting Acceptable. The three alternative campuses – LINC, SOAR and Serenity High– are ranked using different criteria. The county’s Juvenile Justice Center is not ranked.

• Approved a state-required Religious Expression Policy, modified by the MISD board to make it more inclusive of all students. The state model defined "public event" and the types of students allowed this freedom; the MISD version leaves this open-ended, allowing all students this freedom.

   “We made some modifications to the state model,” Crowe said. “Now we have to prepare forms and such to document what we’re already doing here – allowing for students’ freedom of religious expression.”

  Puhl agreed. “It’s a shame we’re in the position to be forced to vote on this. There is possible litigation there on both sides.”

• Approved an Energy Conservation Resolution to cut energy usage by five percent a year. "We already implementing so many conservation methods to hit another five percent will be a challenge, but we’ll try," Crowe said. 

• Reviewed district demographic information presented by Harner and Associates’ Dr. Dennis Harner. According to Harner’s projected growth numbers within the district, the city still has 3,500 lots available for building with another 14,000 lots that are still in the planning mode, having not yet been platted or developed. “Most of that growth seems to be out north of Eddins [Elementary] out toward Wilmeth [Elementary]. That area is growing like a weed,” Harner said.