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PLANO, TX – The Plano ISD board of trustees adopted a slightly lower tax rate at its Sept. 29 meeting.

The adopted rate of $1.32375 is 1.27% lower than the rate passed in fiscal year 2019-20, according to Chief Financial Officer Randy McDowell. The majority of the total will cover operational costs, such as teacher salaries and benefits, while the remainder will help pay down the district’s debts, McDowell said.

With this new rate, the average homeowner in Plano will pay $4,894 in property taxes per year, which is down from the average $5,104 paid last fiscal year, McDowell said.

Lower property tax payments are driven by two factors, including the compression of state funding due to House Bill 3 and the slight decline in appraised property value in Plano.

“Those two combined is what has decreased, for the upcoming year, the taxes on the average residence within Plano ISD,” he said.The district is expecting to pay about $180 million into the state’s recapture system this school year, McDowell said. This is a $14 million increase from school year 2019-2020. Recapture redistribute property tax dollars from property-wealthy districts to those deemed property-poor by the state. Despite a trend of higher property tax payments, the amount of funding that stays in PISD has remained flat over the past few years, McDowell said.

“The trend you can see is that the amount of money that stays within the district has stagnated in the last five years, while recapture has grown exponentially,” McDowell said.

Officials in the district hope the Legislature, which reconvenes in January, will put a cap on the amount of recapture districts are required to pay.

“We are going to continue to see that recapture just grow as long as our [property] values are going up,” he said.

Recapture is not the only reason the district is losing money, McDowell said. Millions of dollars are also at stake due to decreased enrollment, which is down by about 2,100 students compared to this year’s projections, he said.

“That’s roughly $20 million that we’re losing,” he said.