Andrea Flores Hidalgo County – Voters will decide on the approval of the tax rate for eight Hidalgo County school districts in upcoming elections, resulting in some county residents receiving two property tax bills this year.
Pablo “Paul” Villarreal Jr., tax assessor, said Hidalgo County will mail out the first 2023 consolidated tax statement by late October, which will not include school taxes for some residents.
After the Nov. 7 election, Villareal said the eight school districts will provide their respective rates to his office, where the county will then process the tax rolls.
“Once we start processing the tax rolls, the values and the tax rate, we’ll come up with a tax statement, and at that point, the districts will be sending out a supplemental statement to that community,” he said.
The districts that will send out a second tax statement are Edinburg CISD, Hidalgo ISD, La Joya ISD, McAllen ISD, Mission CISD, Monte Alto ISD, PSJA ISD and Progreso ISD.
Eden Ramirez, O’Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo law firm partner, explained school taxes will not be included in the first statement because voters have yet to approve the actual tax rate the districts will impose.
“The state of Texas did a tax compression on school districts,” Ramirez said. “And what the tax compression did was that it reduced the total tax rate that a school district can have on a local property.”
The upcoming election will provide school districts the opportunity to recover some of the funding from the tax compression to remain competitive with other districts in the long run, according to Ramirez.
Xavier Salinas, Edinburg CISD Board of Trustees Vice President and Hidalgo ISD Superintendent, said the election is the only opportunity public schools have to maximize their funding.
“Edinburg went down 18 pennies in taxes, and we went almost 4 pennies in taxes,” Salinas said. “We’ve already decreased our taxes to our constituents and our taxpayers, but now we’re just saying we need those 3 pennies.”
Those affected can expect their second tax statement by the end of November.
