Katy ISD has been telling us since they first announced the Bond Committee's proposal that the cost to a taxpayer is only $10.00 a year in new taxes on a $200,000 home.  The first proposal from the committee announced that the tax rate would be $0.04. That's when we first heard the "$10" number.

Then when someone at the ESC remembered that the Harris County Appraisal District had increased the value of homes for tax purposes on average by 17%, they lowered the tax rate number to first $0.01 and now it's at $0.005!  No way to know which way the wind will blow them next week!  The superintendent went about at first, saying  the bond would increase someone's taxes (if they had a $200,000 home) by $10.  That was at 4 cents.  Now we're down to a half a cent, and it's still $10.  Actually it was $74.00 on a $200,000 home at 4 cents and now it's down to $9.25 at a half cent.  It's never been $10. Ever get the feeling someone's not being straight with all of us? (And if I've made mistakes in my calculations here, remember--I don't get paid $188,907.34 a year to know these things! Just send me a note, and I'll correct what's wrong.)

I'm thinking the Superintendent doesn't really know how much taxes will go up, and he really doesn't care.  That's why it apparently doesn't matter to him that he's putting out inaccurate information about how much the tax increase will be.

My questions are these:

Who decided that the average homestead value for KISD is $200,000?  What if it's less than that?  What if it's more?  How do we know?  Who has that data?

Since the tax rate increase has been trumpeted at 4 cents and then 1 cent and now a half cent, is this the last estimate that we will have?  Might it change again?    Could there not be a tax increase at all?  Shouldn't our taxes go down since the appraisals went up by 17%? How much money does this school district really need?

I've spoken earlier about the debt service amount going up, but could it also go down?  How much could the debt service go down if this bond doesn't pass and these proposed bonds aren't sold?