Latexo ISD Adopts 2021-2022 Budget, Tax Rate
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
LATEXO – The Latexo Independent School District Board of Trustees adopted their 2021-2022 budget and tax rate during a relatively brief meeting held on Thursday evening, Aug. 26.
The session was opened by Board President Kelly Nicol who moved his colleagues into a public hearing on the tax rate and budget.
“We are proud to present a good, balanced budget,” LISD Superintendent Michael Woodard said.
With no one else speaking for or against the two matters, the public hearing was closed.
Following the closure of the public hearing, the trustees took up the actionable item portion of the agenda.
The first item of business was the approval of a budget amendment to the 2020-2021 budget. Business Manager Jo Lane informed the board, the district’s first budget amendment was back in April “… where we moved some money because of the (May) election costs. The second amendment, which you have in front of you, is doing the same thing. It’s just shifting money. There is nothing coming out of the fund balance. It’s just moving money around to make the functions (various line items) have enough where we won’t get in trouble by the auditors.”
“Right after that,” Lane continued, “is the amended budget vs. actual budget for 2020-20201, which we are still in until the end of this month. The first column is the original budget and the second column has been changed by those two budget amendments. The third column is through today.”
After a few more minutes of discussion, motions to approve the second budget amendment and the final amended 2020-2021 budget were made, seconded and unanimously approved.
The next item brought forward for the board’s consideration was the adoption of the 2021-2022 budget. The district’s financial blueprint showed revenue of $2,372,723 from local and intermediate sources, state program revenues of $3,751,016 and federal revenue of $154,068 for a total of $6,277,807, with the same amount in expenditures. With very little discussion, the LISD Board adopted the 2021-2022 budget as presented.
The final item addressed in the meeting concerned the 2021-2022 tax rate. The LISD tax rate for the 2020-2021 school year was $1.1254.
“The final paper you have is the ordinance you have to do to set the tax rate for the 2021-2022 school year,” the business manger informed the board.
Lane explained the tax rate needed to support the just approved budget for the new school year came in at $1.1224, a decrease of $0.003.
The total rate is comprised of $0.9634 in Maintenance and Operations (M&O) and $0.1590 in Interest and Sinking (I&S).
A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to adopt the 2021-2022 tax rate. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
A comparison of the tax levy for this year compared to last year showed last year’s average market value of a residence was $119,069 compared to this year’s value of $120,623. The average taxable value last year was $90,404 compared to this year’s taxable value of $94,140.
Using last year’s tax rate of $1.1254, the taxes due on the average residence amounted to $1,017.40. With the newly adopted tax rate of $1.1224, the taxes due on an average residence in Latexo ISD will be $1,056.63, an increase of $39.23 from the previous year.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
