Vote for Katy ISD’s tax rate
Katy ISD is special. Good schools are one of the main reasons people move to the area. To stay that way, the district needs the voters to approve the current tax rate for another year.
Not exactly, but that is part of the explanation offered for why the school district is opting for a tax rate election this year in order to maintain its $1.35 per $100 valuation assessment. According to the state’s funding formulas, the district has to lower its rate. But to finance raises for teachers, principals and other staff, and to hire additional school police officers, the district has opted to ask voters for permission to keep the current rate.
Property taxes can both be confusing and create an unmistakable feeling of being punched in the gut when the bill arrives. The value of houses has jumped across Texas. In Fort Bend County, the average property value rose 31 percent between the 2021 and 2022 tax years. In Harris County, property values increased 21 percent this year. So, even if the tax rates stay the same, what Texans are paying in taxes is skyrocketing.
A state law passed in 2019 limits counties, cities and other taxing districts with a few exceptions to a 3.5 percent annual increase in revenue and requires they cut their tax rate if that limit is exceeded. School districts, meanwhile, were effectively restricted to just 2.5 percent. There’s one way out. Voters can approve keeping, or even raising, the tax rate they have.
Are you still with us? In Harris County, Republican and Democratic leaders are debating how much to cut the tax rate. In Katy, despite being a more conservative area, the school board is asking voters to keep the tax rate the same and let the additional revenue pour in.
“The ultimate goal is the education of our students and all the wonderful experiences we give our students,” Superintendent Kenneth Gregorski told the editorial board.
At a time when so many school districts are struggling to fill vacancies and keep teachers in the classroom, we are sympathetic to the need to boost teacher and staff salaries. The Katy district falls somewhere in the middle when it comes to teacher salaries in the region and Gregorski ranks in the top 10 for superintendent salaries in the Houston area.
“Everybody within our organization is valuable,” he explained.
The raises would amount to roughly a 4 percent increase from the midpoint of each employee’s respective pay grade. Some of the funds garnered from the steady tax rate would go toward hiring 10 additional school police officers, following a post-Uvalde recommendation from the district’s police chief and emergency management coordinator. These priorities certainly seem more important than the district’s recent obsession with policing library books.
The school board has been generally supportive, approving the expenses so long as the tax rate passes. But some have raised concerns about families shouldering an increasing tax burden with concerns about inflation top of mind for many. And some voters may still remember the failed 2013 bond proposition that engendered deep community division over district spending priorities.
“I would agree that’s a pretty big ask for some of our families in the district,” Gregorski explained. “There’s always a concern when we’re asking our voters to support something.”
Still, he said, the district is known for giving “unparalleled learning experiences to all our children,” and, as he told the board, “there is a cost to all that.”
The district hasn’t been tax-happy. In recent years, the district has actually lowered its tax rate on occasion. While the rate voters are being asked to approve is 4.7 cents per $100 valuation higher than the state’s mandated maximum level, it would represent a difference of roughly $150 for the owner of a $320,000 home. Not nothing, but for the ability to pay teachers and staff more, it seems worth it.
These mechanisms are tricky. All districts suffer when the state fails to adequately fund education, and districts with high appraisals see less state support or pay millions in the “Robin Hood” system of redistribution. But those same districts can afford to go above and beyond what the state’s formula envisions — with voter approval, of course. When they do, it can help fuel inequality between school districts, which can be more severe than inequality within districts.
The bigger issue, then, is insufficient state funding. “(O)ur lawmakers have never created a system that puts all students on equal footing,” wrote David DeMatthews, an associate professor at the University of Texas, and David S. Knight, an assistant professor at the University of Washington, in a recent op-ed.
In the end, voters in Katy should support their schools, and then vote for state politicians, including lieutenant governor candidate Mike Collier, who will support all schools and who promise to lower the burden on homeowners by doing away with the property tax loopholes that allow big-dollar commercial owners to avoid paying their fair share.