Willis ISD finance staff warns of lower local tax collections, outlines budget amendment and costs for new campus

Gary Motte, a district finance staff member, told the Willis ISD Board of Trustees on March 19 that the district will amend its 2024–25 budget to reflect lower-than-expected local tax collections after two large corrections to the county appraisal roll and other state-level changes that affect school funding.

Motte said the district had based its adopted 2024–25 revenue estimates on certified tax values it received last summer but later learned the county appraisal roll was corrected to remove a duplicate listing worth about $242,000,000 in taxable value and, more recently, that a newly added account worth about $92,000,000 will be treated as tax-exempt. Motte said those two corrections together will reduce local tax revenue by roughly $1.9 million in current-year projections and that he will bring a budget amendment to the board to reflect the lower collections.

Motte also told trustees that a state property-value recalculation submitted by Montgomery County for certain homestead exemptions could produce additional state funds for county districts. He said Willis ISD has appealed the 2023 calculation and that a successful…