And they do it with misleading advertising paid for with district funds.

I thought this area was supposed to be conservative, why can't people be bothered to vote against tax increases? Please stop letting teachers unions run the largest taxing entity on your property tax bill.

Lol how is this? If your referring to the bond that just passed you are wrong. And how did it increase last year aside from property value increase?

In reply to austinrb10

austinrb10 said:

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Lol how is this? If your referring to the bond that just passed you are wrong. And how did it increase last year aside from property value increase?

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The bond passed meaning the collection of higher property values continues rather than being lowered to account for the surplus collections (they collected something like $350M more than what is necessary to service existing debt) or instead of paying down existing debt quicker. Higher tax levy/collections = higher property taxes.

The M&O increase last year was sold as "your rate will decrease even with this increase" by ignoring the fact that the state paid to compress our property taxes, and the district gobbled up 3 cents of that relief before it got to tax payers. Our tax rate is 3 cents higher than they would have been without the district doing that. More revenue was collected by the district = tax increase. Higher tax levy/collections = higher property taxes.

Anything other than a no new revenue rate is a tax increase. Do you think they had to take it to voters to be nice? This is how this system has gotten so out of hand. The district puts out misleading talking points like "youre rate wont increase" while ignoring property value increase, or they say "your taxes will decreases even if we pass this" while ignoring the state is trying to provide property tax relief to tax payers who are getting eaten alive by districts. People take the district at its word, their tax collections only go up, and then they blame everyone but themselves.

I'm over in Comal county and I share your sentiment that NBISD is managed by truly terrible people and property tax has gotten out of control. This the largely the fault of our state-level overlords playing the long game to ram the equivalent of an unpopular ISD school bond down all of TX throats- Vouchers. They couldn't get it passed on a ballot, the couldn't get it passed in session, nor could they get it passed in a special session.

NBISD showed their true colors, especially in how they ran off Chris Smith, an outstanding principal. They've been in leadership turnover and shuffle since. Not ideal conditions for district seeking growth on the scale that they are doing with new schools and expansion along the way. With that being said, it isn't fair or reasonable to assert that teachers unions run anything of substance in Comal County from a tax standpoint nor statewide in our Conservative Republican, Right-to-work Texas. Local gov's are being held hostage by State level cronies and politicians who want to play games with your tax $ and pay for someone else's voucher to go to a private school (which the voucher won't come close to covering.) They also continue to fund "Robin-hood" robbery of district funds to bail out failing urban schools and charter schools miles away. TX Legislature and Gov/Lt.Gov haven't made any significant education funding increases since 2019-pre pandemic, and pre double digit inflation after Feds turned money printers on on an level humanity has never known. Abbott has said no further funds from the state until he gets his voucher plan enabled. Dan Patrick promised state funding for teacher salaries with a "$10,000 raise." Didn't happen. State cronies are jacking with your property tax money instead of adequately funding public ed at the state level to offset real property tax reform and let taxpayers have a break, finally. Don't blame non existent "teacher unions" for cronyism and witholding funds.


Local ISDs aren't perfect either, and need to prioritize their money better and have more local oversight. NBISD and Comal ISD are likely going to be deeper in the red worse than 2010. Comal touts their large 20% homestead exemption as a selling point to bring people here. This area is the fastest developing area in the country, yet they cannot competitively pay their staff close to what neighboring districts do. The quagmire they are in is, Do we increase tax rates to fund all this unprecedented growth and pay our staff, or do we focus on getting our board re-elected due to "conservative" sensibilities? In 2021, Comal ISD voters voted FOR an increase to pay teachers better. No deception on what it was, an voluntary tax increase to pay teachers and staff. Not sure where NBISD stands, but lately many share your anger and sentiment at ISD's asking their tax base to help pay staff. Comal ISD will likely never capitalize on this unprecedented growth. They are too scared to lose board seats and propose it again. Why is this? No new state funding since 2019 from TX Gov. The Covid $ and ESSER funds are gone.

What districts are having to do in order to recruit talent and provide competitive salary to make up for their shortfall in staff-pay is a Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) from the state with even more hoops to jump through just to pay teachers fairly. Comal ISD and likely NBISD They have no other solution to this and are years behind other school districts. I share your outrage at my tax valuations and appraisals as my taxes are going up but our schools are being hung out to dry and lambasted by our State gov.

I'm no democrat, but there is only one party in Texas running things since 1996 responsible for the mess we are in with education funding at the state level, which the burden has trickled down and become a burden to local school districts that they shouldn't have to carry because of games with property tax $. Texas has the $ and endowments from PUF fund and PSF funds to cover it with billions in surplus. But they want public schools to fail and angry, straight ticket voters to fall for the voucher scams rather than pass real property tax reform and fund public education in Texas correctly.

Great insight, hillcountry ag. State Gov doesn't have clean hands here

Very informative posts here. Thank you all for sharing.

- Comal co prop owner who's seen insane rise in prop tax year over year the past decade.

OP, since you believe that NBISD purposefully used misleading bond language, you are in luck.

File a complaint with the Secretary of State. Here's the link.

https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/forms/pol-sub/25-4f.pdf

It'll take months before you receive a response to your complaint, but please be sure to let us know the outcome.

Keep in mind that the district had all of their bond election language vetted by legal counsel prior to sharing it with the community.

Seems to me that the majority of stakeholders in conservative NBISD chose to vote in favor of new and improved school infrastructure.

Perhaps they were all fleeced by the district's use of deceptive language.