The El Paso Independent School District board approved a tax rate Tuesday that would raise the tax bill on an average home by about $114 a year compared to last year, although a third of homeowners in the district will pay nothing in school tax.
The El Paso ISD board voted 7-0 to adopt a tax rate of $1.0745 per $100 of taxable property valuation. This is slightly below the voter-approval rate of $1.0789 per $100 property valuation, which is the highest tax rate the district could adopt without triggering an election.
District officials said the tax rate is primarily driven by complex state school finance law, leaving EPISD with little discretion on the rate. As the state has increased homestead exemptions for school property taxes in recent years, the law also created calculations for what is known as “compression,” or a reduction in tax rates, EPISD Treasurer Walt Byers told the school board…