Board of Trustees proposes maintaining Blinn College’s current tax rate
College will host public hearings regarding the tax rate on Aug. 29 and Sept. 7
August 15, 2017
The Blinn College Board of Trustees will consider a 2017 tax rate of $0.0601 per $100 of property value during its regular September meeting.
This rate, which remains the lowest among the state’s 50 community college districts, would maintain the rate established in both 2015 and 2016 and generate an estimated $1,887,086 in tax revenue to support Brenham Campus maintenance and operations. This rate equates to approximately $108.40 in annual taxes on an average Washington County home valued at $180,380.
The effective tax rate of $0.0576 would yield an estimated $1,818,567, while the rollback tax rate of $0.0622 would yield an estimated $1,944,642.
Blinn will host two public hearings regarding the tax rate in the Blinn College Board Room located in the Brenham Campus Administration Building at 802 Green Street. Those hearings will take place at noon on Tuesday, Aug. 29, and 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 7. The board will vote to establish the tax rate at its regular September meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 19.
While Blinn College provides services to a 13-county area, only Washington County resides within the College’s taxing district. Property tax revenue pays for approximately one-third of the Blinn-Brenham Campus’s maintenance and operations costs, with Brenham Campus student tuition and fee revenues funding the remaining costs. By law, property tax revenue cannot be utilized to fund campuses outside of the taxing district.
The average Texas community college property tax rate is $0.1820.
According Blinn College’s most recent economic impact study, state and local taxpayers receive a 9.4 percent annual rate of return on their investment in the Blinn-Brenham Campus, and for every dollar taxpayers spend supporting Blinn, taxpayers see $4.30 in social savings and benefits. Each year, Blinn-Brenham and its students add approximately $83 million in income to the local economy, including $56.4 million in productivity from students who enter or re-enter the workforce with newly acquired skills.
