Another district affecting southern Denton County residents has adopted a budget with a lower tax rate.
The Denton ISD Board of Trustees adopted its budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year at the Sept. 22 meeting, adopting a tax rate of $1.1528 per $100 of taxable property value.
According to the district, it is a tax rate reduction of more than five cents compared to the rate for the 2025-2026 fiscal year.
Denton ISD didn’t exactly vote to lower the tax rate. The district said the decrease is primarily due to a lower maintenance and operations rate assigned to the district by the state.
With the lower rate, a taxpayer with a median-valued homestead in Denton ISD will pay about $345 less in taxes than last year.
“A $345 reduction for the typical homeowner is real money in a household budget, and nearly 39 cents off our rate since 2018-19 is a record this board is proud of,” said Denton ISD Board President Barbara Burns. “We have done that while continuing to invest in the people who serve our children every day.”
Since the 2018-2019 fiscal year, the district’s total tax rate has dropped by nearly 39 cents.
The newly-adopted tax rate supports the balanced $380 million General Fund budget the board adopted in June – a major change from the district’s budget for the previous year that had a $19.9 million deficit plan.
It also features raises for teachers and all other district employees.
“Our job as trustees is to be careful with what this community entrusts to us and unwavering about what our students need,” said Burns. “This rate reflects both the compression the state applies as local values rise and the work our team has done to build a budget that pays our teachers competitively without asking more of our taxpayers.”
According to the district, the rate went down for three main reasons:
- A lower state-assigned M&O rate: Under the Texas school finance system, the state compresses a district’s basic Maintenance and Operations rate as local property values rise. The compression assigned for 2026-27 lowered Denton ISD’s M&O rate and accounts for essentially all of the five-cent reduction in the total rate.
- Voter-approved M&O pennies carried forward: In November 2025, Denton ISD voters approved Proposition A, a Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election that added five cents to the district’s M&O rate on a permanent basis. Those pennies generate roughly $26 million a year. Because the increase was permanent, no new election is required, and the five cents carry into 2026-27 unchanged.
- A flat Interest and Sinking (I&S) rate: The debt service rate is unchanged for 2026-27 as the district continues to retire voter-approved bond obligations on schedule. Denton ISD has held the I&S rate at $0.4800 for several years.
Texas school districts levy taxes in two separate funds that cannot be mixed. The Maintenance and Operations rate supports recurring costs such as salaries, utilities, transportation and instructional materials. Approximately 80% of those dollars go to employee pay.
The Interest and Sinking rate, also called debt service, repays bonds that voters have approved for buildings, land, buses, and technology. By law, I&S dollars cannot be redirected to salaries or classroom operations.
