TDT / TC Board sets tax rate after appraisal adjustment At a budget workshop last week, the Temple College board of trustees asked the school’s administration to come up with a tax rate that would provide necessary funding. It was a challenge, because at that time TC didn’t know its effective tax rate. At a special meeting Monday, Van Miller, vice president of administrative services, told the board he was holding the fourth copy of the effective tax rate worksheet from the county appraisal district. After the college got its final numbers from the appraisal district, the calculations had TC’s effective tax rate jumping from $0.1945 to $0.22 cents. “It made no sense,” Miller said. The effective tax rate is the rate that would raise the same amount of money for the taxing entity as last year’s rate. Gary Jackson, associate vice president of finance and information technology, and Miller got on the phone with the head of the appraisal district and went over the calculations line by line. It turned out the dollars from Panda Energy, which is in the Reinvestment Zone and gets a tax abatement, were removed two times during the calculation instead of once. The rollback rate also was off, showing a new rate of $0.2034, below the current tax rate of $0.2036. Each change meant TC President Glenda Barron was sending out a new email to the trustees. “I figured you would eventually quit reading my emails,” Barron said. Ultimately, a proposed rate of $0.2065 was set, an amount that would cost the taxpayer with a $100,000 home an additional $29 per year. Enough funding is needed to support TC education initiatives, cover health insurance cost increases for employees, add to the advising staff and adjust positions for those whose jobs have changed. The budget, with the addition of a new tax rate and an unfilled position, will allow for adding two success coaches to the advising staff. Success coaches are assigned to students and follow them throughout their time at TC. During the budgeting process, some divisions and departments asked for position upgrades for staff, while others had not, most likely because of the belief that there wasn’t enough xmoney to make those adjustments, Barron said. Any changes in job descriptions will be postponed until a more comprehensive review can be done for all divisions, she said. A rate of $0.2065, along with the additional money expected from the Hutto campus, would bring in enough money to meet the priorities of the board. A public hearing for the tax rate will be held noon, Thursday, Aug. 7, and 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Aug 14, in the board room of the administration building at Temple College.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 12:12:47 +0000
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