The Northeast Texas Community College Board of Trustees held its annual tax rate hearing and regular August meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 24. The board approved the 2021-2022 operating budget and adopted the 2021-2022 tax rate.
During the tax rate hearing, the board heard public comments on the proposed tax rate of 13 cents per $100 valuation. While the college was not proposing to raise its tax rate, concerns were expressed about the fact that tax bills would be higher due to an overall increase in property values in the district.
When discussing the action item to consider maintaining the tax rate of 13 cents per $100 valuation, Trustee Frankie King of Camp County asked for clarification about the overall effect that lowering to the No New Revenue rate of 12.7 cents would have on taxpayers. “So if someone owns a $100,000 house and we lower the rate to 12.7 cents we are saving them about $3 a year?” King asked. “If someone owns a $1 million property they would be saving about $30 per year, is that correct?”
Jeff Chambers, NTCC Vice President for Administrative Services, confirmed that his calculations were accurate.
“I would like to point out that the college’s tax rate has only gone up once in 37 years. The voters of Camp, Morris and Titus counties originally approved a tax rate of 10 cents and that was later raised another three cents by voters. We have been at that rate since then and cannot go above that rate,” Board Chairman Chuck Johns, said.
Maintaining the proposed tax rate of 13 cents per $100 valuation will result in an overall increase of $11.67 in college taxes from 2021 to 2022 for the average homestead property in the NTCC taxing district (value of $125,759.87).
Ultimately, the board approved the proposed rate of 13 cents (.04495 Interest and Sinking and .08505 Maintenance and Operation). They also approved the college budget of $19,858,841 for 2021-2022. The approved budget included no tuition and fee hike for students and a 2% raise for college employees.
In other action, the board approved eight new employees. Rob Hudson was hired as Director of Institutional Effectiveness, Kaymon Farmer as Director of Student Activities and Inclusion, Justin Hampton as Head Rodeo Coach, Ross Davis as Assistant Baseball Coach/Assistant Housing Director, Amanda Shaw as Nursing Faculty Member, Charla Hunt as Administrative Assistant to the Vice President for Instruction, Mikayla Krause as Assistant Softball Coach/Assistant Housing Director, and Mark Mallory as EMS Program Director.
“It is not uncommon to have quite a few roles to fill going into a new academic year and we are excited to welcome these individuals to NTCC,” Dr. Ron Clinton, NTCC President, said.
The board also approved five tax resale deeds from Titus County and Directors and Officers Liability insurance for the NTCC Foundation.
