BLINN BOARD ADOPTS HIGHER PROPERTY TAX RATE
The Blinn Board of Trustees voted today (Tuesday) to adopt an increased property tax rate.
The new tax rate of $0.0438 per $100 valuation exceeds the previous rate of $0.0421 and the no-new-revenue rate of $0.0404, and is just below the voter approval rate of $0.0439. It is expected to yield $3,183,274 million in tax revenue for the district, which equates to $43.80 annually per $100,000 of home value.
Blinn has the lowest tax rate among all Texas community colleges and is the only community college in the state penalized with hundreds of thousands of dollars in reduced state appropriations for having a rate below $0.05. Executive Vice Chancellor Leighton Schubert said the penalty was created through the 88th Legislature’s higher education bill, House Bill 8, and the College’s attempts to waive the rule have so far been unsuccessful.
Student revenue makes up roughly three quarters of Blinn’s funding each year, followed by around a quarter for state appropriations and about 2 percent for property tax dollars. The College is keeping tuition and fee rates the same for the 2025-26 academic year, after the state asked community colleges to freeze them.
By law, all property tax revenue collected within Blinn’s taxing district in Washington County must be used to support the College’s operations in Washington County. Revenue goes toward the physical plant operations at the Brenham Campus, such as ground maintenance, custodial service, building maintenance and general plant support.
The vote on the tax rate was 5-1, with Trustee Richard O’Malley voting against adopting the new rate.
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