Friendswood ISD trustees adopt 4-cent tax rate reduction, but average homeowners still expected to see higher bills

FRIENDSWOOD, Texas (KTRK) — Friendswood ISD is introducing a new tax rate deduction, which is being promoted as the lowest tax rate in over 40 years.

The deduction gives a 4-cent refund on every taxable hundred dollars of home value, but despite the appeal of lower taxes, these small refunds will have little to no impact on your end-of-year bill.

School tax rates are calculated based on operation and maintenance costs, as well as interest and sinking tax rates. Both have been lowered to allow the school to opt for the 4-cent drop.

The 4-cent rate deduction, meant to give homeowners some relief, ultimately doesn’t change your yearly tax bill because home values have grown so much, increasing your property tax.

“The reason we are able to drop this tax rate is an increase in home values so we’ve dropped out I&S or the mortgage portion of our rate by 2.3% because we don’t need as much property tax collections to pay for the buildings we’ve already done,” Friendswood ISD board of trustees president Tony Hopkins said.

Hopkins said the tax rate change does not mean the school is spending or investing less. Instead, they share that more funding is needed for public education to help boost teacher salaries and invest in special education.

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