Ector County ISD trustees adopt 2025 tax rate of 1.0048 to meet debt obligations

The Ector County ISD board of trustees voted 7-0 on Sept. 16 to adopt a 2025 tax rate of 1.0048 per $100 of taxable value for fiscal year 2025–26, a rate district finance staff said is necessary to meet debt service obligations.

District finance staff walked trustees through multiple state-prescribed calculations, including the “no-new-revenue” rate and the voter-approval tax rate using Texas Education Agency and state comptroller templates. The district reported a no-new-revenue tax rate of 0.9532 and said the voter-approval total tax rate computed using certified values and TEA templates is 1.0048. Staff also reported a maintenance-and-operations (M&O) rate of 0.7504 and a debt-service rate of 0.2544.

Finance staff told the board that adopting a total tax rate of 1.0048 avoids roughly $9.5 million less revenue that would occur if the district defaulted to the no-new-revenue rate of 0.9532, and that the recommended rate is lower than the district’s prior historic total tax rate. The presenter emphasized the distinction between the math the state requires for published language and the district’s actual change relative to prior adopted rates.

During the motion, a board member read the statutorily required language noting the effect on a representative $100,000 home; in the board’s motion Trustee Steve read that the action “will effectively be raised by 5.4% and will raise taxes for maintenance and operation on a $100,000 home by approximately $15.” Trustee Steve moved to adopt the voter-approval tax rate of 1.0048; Trustee Wayne seconded. The motion passed, 7-0.

Trustees and staff did not alter the district’s debt-service component (reported as 0.2544) and staff said TEA’s compressed maintenance-and-operations limits informed the calculations presented to the board. The district intends to publish the required notices and include the required language in the official minutes as part of the tax-rate adoption process.