The Henderson County School Board unanimously passed a small tax rate increase on both real and personal property at a special called meeting Monday evening.
The increase involves 0.1 cent per $100 of valuation for both, according to school officials.
Superintendent Dr. Bob Lawson gave three examples of how the increase would affect the owners of homes for real property valuations.
The owner of a $75,000 home will pay an extra 75 cents; the owner of a $100,000 home will pay an extra $1; and the owner of a $200,000 home will pay an extra $2, according to information Lawson presented.
Lawson said a school district is allowed to take a 4% increase in revenue over the previous year, which is what this will do. He said the tax percentage increase–which is different than a revenue increase–is less than 1%.
The increase is expected to produce $1.359 million more than what was produced over last year’s rate, said Lawson in his presentation. Last year’s rate for both real and personal property was 68.2 cents per $100 valuation.
School board officials said that at Sept. 21’s board meeting the 2026-2027 school system budget will be reviewed.
Lawson said that most years the school system will need to seek a tax increase of some sort. He said inflation also affects the school system, including diesel, power costs and teacher salaries.
“When costs are up for the public, they’re up for the school system as well,” he said.
Three people spoke at the public hearing portion of the meeting which occurred before the vote. One, Niagara resident Lisa Thompson Meyer, said she owns 31 properties, and what may seem like a small increase on an individual property ends up being more substantial with as many properties as she owns.
