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College Station ISD board adopts 2025 tax rate of $0.9753 per $100; cites appraisal litigation and state changes
Summary
The College Station ISD Board of Trustees approved a total tax rate of $0.9753 per $100 of taxable value (M&O 0.6963; I&S 0.279), an effective 1.9% increase that the district says stems from property-value losses tied to appraisal litigation and recent state homestead-exemption changes.
The College Station Independent School District Board of Trustees voted 7-0 Aug. 19 to adopt a maintenance and operations tax rate of 0.6963 and an interest and sinking tax rate of 0.279 for a total tax rate of 0.9753 per $100 of taxable value. Trustees said the adopted rate will effectively raise the tax burden by 1.9% and increase maintenance-and-operations taxes on a $100,000 home by about $18.09.
District finance staff framed the vote as a response to shrinking local taxable value and recent state law changes. "You can kinda see that there was only a growth of 2.6% in property certified property values this year," Ms. Wilson said in a presentation on the certified and taxable values. She told the board that the comptroller instructed districts to calculate rates using a homestead exemption increase to $140,000 as if the November ballot measure had passed, and that Senate Bill 4 and Senate Bill 23 changes to homestead exemptions are already affecting compressed-rate calculations.
Wilson also described a larger, district-specific price shock from appraisal litigation. She said College Station ISD lost about $164 million in taxable value in 2024 when a wave of apartment/complex value appeals were settled after several years of cases stacking, and an additional $86 million in 2025 to date. "When they all go, when they're all settled at one time it just hits us at one time," she said, adding that the district collected roughly 97% of its tax roll this year because of refunds tied to those settlements.
Wilson told the board the litigation and the homestead-exemption changes reduce the district's compressed-maximum rate and complicate the state's hold‑harmless calculations. She said the district has sold most of its prior bonds but still has roughly $100 million of bond obligations remaining and that debt-service rates may rise in future sales if state calculations change.
Trustees asked staff for clarifying analyses and context before future decisions on whether to seek additional pennies beyond the current rate setting. The motion to adopt the rate was made by Trustee Ige and seconded by Dr. Payne; the motion passed on a voice vote, recorded as 7-0.
District staff said they will continue monitoring Texas Education Agency and comptroller guidance about how hold‑harmless amounts will be calculated under the new exemptions, and that updated property-value studies are underway to determine whether some lost local value can be recovered for maintenance-and-operations revenue in future years.
The board approved the motion during its workshop meeting; staff noted that any future decision to raise the tax rate beyond this adoption could affect the district's hold‑harmless funding under state rules and that the TEA's precise calculation method remains unclear.
