Frisco ISD Approves Tax Hike To Pay Teachers; Now Up To Voters

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FRISCO (CBS11) – Property taxes could be going up in Frisco as the Frisco ISD school board voted Tuesday night to pursue an increase that would add $450 to the average Frisco homeowner's tax bill.

Voters will decide if the tax hike goes through during an election on August 27.

The Frisco ISD is set to lose millions of dollars in funding when a temporary state provision expires, so the school board wants to raise property taxes by 13 cents for every $100 of property value.

The district says the additional $30 million generated from the tax increase would help reduce class sizes and increase teacher salaries to competitive levels with nearby districts, like Plano ISD.

"So this is really about putting teachers in the classrooms," said Frisco ISD CFO Kimberly Pickens. "We are growing so fast … so what this $30 million means to us is to add staff to those new campuses and to get our class sizes back down to the state average."

This year Frisco ISD received 294 class size waivers – one of the highest number of waivers issued to a district.

However, not all taxpayers are on-board with the proposed tax hike.

Tom Fabry, a Frisco resident and member of the Coalition of Texas Responsible Spending, said taxpayers should be concerned by the rapid increase in property taxes.

Fabry said when factoring in appraisal increases along with the proposed Frisco ISD tax hike, the average Frisco homeowner will see a 50 percent increase on their taxes compared to just five years ago.

In just the past two year, property values in Frisco have gone up 21 percent.

"That's a staggering amount of money," Fabry said. "We may be very well pricing the people that we want to attract to this town out of the market."

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