Katy ISD adopts 2025–26 budget and holds tax rate at 1.11; trustees ask questions about state funding math

The Katy Independent School District Board of Trustees approved the district’s 2025–26 official budget and maintained the proposed tax rate at 1.11 during its Aug. 25 meeting.
Trustees discussed a technical but politically sensitive point in the state-provided tax-rate notice: a line that shows a lower rate needed "to maintain the same level of maintenance and operations revenue" when state funding formulas add money to districts. Board members and finance staff explained that additional state formula dollars can lower the calculated maximum compressed rate in the TEA template even though the district’s actual local revenue needs and spending choices have not necessarily fallen.
"TEA sets our maximum compressed rate," a district finance official explained to the board, and the notice reflects state funding inputs rather than local policy choices. Trustees asked administration to be able to explain that calculation to taxpayers more plainly.
Trustees approved the budget and related items by a unanimous 7–0 vote. Board members reiterated that the district must balance local instructional needs with a state funding environment that has not fully restored the basic allotment and that earlier state actions that "bought down" tax rates in prior years do not repeat annually.
The board also approved procedural steps related to the public hearing and the notice required under state law. Trustees did not change exemptions or ask for a voter election to alter the district’s enrichment pennies; the district’s local enrichment pennies remain part of the total rate published in the official notice.