The rate has not been adopted as of yet, only proposed. For the rate to pass into law, it will have to be put to the district residents first, said Clydene Freeman, assistant superintendent of Magnolia ISD.

“They’ll be a public meeting to discuss the budget and proposed tax rate,” Freeman said. “It has to go to a public hearing and they have to accept that and put it out for discussion.”

The public hearing is scheduled for Aug. 20 at 6:30 p.m. at the Celeste Graves Education Support Center on Nichols Sawmill Road.

The tax revenue helps fund a combination of maintenance and operations, which is part of the general fund, and the remainder goes to Interest and Sinking (I&S), which is used to pay off bonds previously approved by voters, said chief financial officer Eric Morris.

The rate applies to “any property owners of any sort” who live in the school district’s boundaries. In essence, the $1.38 tax rate is per $100 evaluation, so if a person owns a $100,000 home, they would then pay about $2,000 per year in taxes.

If adopted, the tax would collect almost $47 million in the fiscal year, which runs from September 2009 to August 2010, Morris said.

The rate decrease is attributed to the increase in overall property value since last year, he added.

“We dropped our I&S rate slightly because we hadn’t had enough funds,” he said. “We had an increase in our overall property value, which went from $3.1 billion last year $3.4 billion.”

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