Ector County ISD’s chief financial officer recently said that the district’s tax base will enable it to avoid a property tax hike to pay for the $424.3 million in bonds that were recently approved by the voters.
Since 2020, said Deborah Ottmers, ECISD has made early payments of about $37.3 million dollars on existing bonds and by prepayments and refinancing saved the taxpayers $26.9 million in future interest payments.
“The values will go up some, so it’s a big calculation you put together that the rate, $1.04 per $100 in valuation, doesn’t mean taxes won’t go up because if people’s home values go up the taxes might go up even though the rate is the same,” Ottmers said. “It’s all a calculation 25 to 30 years in the future.
“We don’t know yet if they’re going to be 25- or 30-year bonds because we have to look and see what the market is at the time. It could be that some are 25 years and some 30. It’s all mathematical calculations into the future.”
Ottmers said ECISD had taken into account the state’s increased homestead exemption and tax compression.
The constitutional amendment approved by voters Nov. 7 raises the exemption from $40,000 to $100,000.
Ottmers said that was all rolled into the calculations.
For a $200,000 valued home, she said, taxable value would be $60,000 as opposed to $120,000.
“So (taxes) for that homeowner would go down by more than $805 per year for a 57-percent decrease,” she said in an email, adding that when the expected increases in values are figured in over the time frame of the bond and the taxes that will be brought in, the tax rate should not increase.
Because the maintenance and operations tax rate is compressing and the state’s picking up more of that, ECISD can pay down more of its debt service, Ottmers said.
Trying to calculate the timeline of each project and when to sell the bonds are two of the next objectives.
“We are in process of putting timelines together for when we think the projects will be done, and then based on the cost of each of those projects, we’ll look and see when we think we would need money,” Ottmers said. “That is how we’ll determine when we’ll go out for bond sales.”
The earliest it could be is January, but she estimated it would probably be more like February or March.
Superintendent Scott Muri has said ECISD wouldn’t go for all the bond money at once.
Ottmers said a balance is involved “because it costs money every time you go to buy bonds just like if you were buying a house.
“There are fees to go through that process, so is it worth it to go ahead and take more earlier and not do another bond sale and pay more fees?” she asked. “It’s all just a balancing act, but I don’t see that we would take it all at once, especially in the beginning because you have spending requirements as time goes on.
“Because they’re government tax-exempt bonds, you can’t just hold on to the money for a long period of time. That would be one of the biggest reasons that we wouldn’t sell it all at once. Everything isn’t lined up yet to build buildings and spend the money.”
Ottmers said she had been in other districts where bonds were approved with no tax increase.
“You can have a bond, but the tax rate doesn’t have to go up because the values have gone up,” she said. “If the values go up, you can collect the same amount of revenue.”
The total tax rate for 2022 was $1.17 per $100 valuation.
“But remember, the state is picking up more of the share,” Ottmers said. “It’s not like we are going to be without money. The state is finally stepping up and paying more of their share so that the local communities don’t have to.”
She said districts are at the same basic allotment amount per student that they have been the past four years and this is the fifth year at the same level of $6,160 per student.
The state funds districts at higher levels for bilingual, special education and economically disadvantaged students, for example. “We’ve been giving raises and costs have been going up, but we still have the same money from the state for the fifth year now,” Ottmers said.
Bond 2023
Proposition A – $424,263,000 is what passed out of a three proposition bond Nov. 7. The total bond amount was $436,109,000. More information can be found at ectorcountyisd.org/bond2023
- New Career & Technical Education Center to be located in south Odessa/Ector County
- New middle school to be located in west Ector County
- Districtwide maintenance and repairs
- Transportation Department: bus purchases and a new Transportation Facility
- Technology Department: replacement of district phone system, PA/Bell/Clock/Fire Alarm system replacements; security camera refresh; classroom interactive flat panels; large group instruction area audio/visual equipment
- Fine Arts Department: complete renovation of the Permian High School Auditorium; replace outdated instruments; performance risers for all middle school choirs; classroom instruments for elementary campuses; uniforms for middle school bands and mariachi; JROTC facility needs
- Transition Learning Center: compete replacement of facility for students with special needs learning to transition from school to the workforce
- Agriculture Farm: complete replacement of classroom buildings and barns
- Athletics: LED lighting at the Odessa High School baseball and tennis stadiums; LED lighting at the Permian High School baseball stadium; resurfacing of tennis stadiums at all middle schools; replacement of indoor bleachers in main gyms of all middle schools;
- Land purchase for new CTE Center and new middle school
