The Longview Independent School District Board of Trustees unanimously adopted a lower property tax rate and new district budget for the 2022-23 year during a special meeting Wednesday, Aug. 31.
Dr. Wayne Guidry, LISD Assistant Superintendent of Finance, said the district is projecting a balanced General Operating budget of $94,214,401, a Debt Service of $27,210,019, and a Food Service Budget of $5,090,196. This total brings the official budget to $126,514,616.
"The budget includes salary increases for employees as well as retention bonuses for returning employees, and addresses rising inflation," he said.
The maintenance and operations tax rate is $.8546 and the interest and sinking tax rate is $.4730 cents for a total tax rate of $1.3276 per $100 valuation. This is a marked decrease from the 2021-22 tax rate, which was $1.41470 per $100 valuation.
It also marks the fourth-straight year of the property tax rate being reduced for Longview ISD property owners.
Superintendent Dr. James Wilcox said the district has been cutting the tax rate in recent years, after keeping the same rate stable for nearly a decade.
"The board maintained the same tax rate of $1.5130 from 2010 until 2019 — when the district reduced the rate to $1.4430 — and we've continued to reduce it each year since," he said. "This illustrates how Longview ISD has worked to offset the sharp increase in property tax valuations that are well beyond our control."
While the district has reduced the LISD property tax rate for the last four years, the amount of property taxes collected may increase due to a rise in the value of the property, which is determined by the county appraisal district.
Please click here to download the 2022-23 budget and tax rate:
About Longview Independent School District
Longview ISD is home to more than 8,400 students and 1,400 staff members, with our richly diverse student population reflecting our wonderful city and the East Texas area in general. But our educational offerings are just as diverse as our people, including everything from magnet charter school STEAM campuses to project-based learning.
For our youngest students we recently built a $31-million state-of-the-art campus that houses the largest public Montessori program in the United States. This year our Montessori program is expanding into the Ware Elementary campus, where it is expected to grow into the East Texas Montessori Academy for grades 1st through 5th. This is an elite, Montessori-style education free of charge to the entire community.
Our district is one of the few school in the United States that offers the esteemed International Baccalaureate Programme, with an increasing number of National Merit and GLOBE scholars. We lead East Texas in state TEA distinctions and dual-credit college hours earned, and each year we graduate more students to more prestigious universities than any other district in the region.
