Officials say it's still among the lowest in Houston area

Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District has increased its 2010 tax rate by 2 cents.

The tax rate is $1.43 per $100 of assessed property value.

"It doesn't make anybody feel any better, but if you look at the 2004-05 tax rate, it was $1.79," Superintendent David Anthony said. "And we've grown in that time somewhere around 26,000 or 27,000 kids."

As of Sept. 15 the district's enrollment was 106,134.

The school board at its October meeting unanimously approved adding 2 cents to the debt-service portion of the tax rate to increase it to 39 cents per $100 valuation.

The maintenance-and-operations portion of the tax rate, $1.04 per $100 valuation, couldn't be raised because it's at the rollback rate. Attempting to increase it would have triggered a tax-ratification election, according to Stuart Snow, associate superintendent for business and financial services.

The district's highest tax rate was $1.80 in 2005. For the 2006-07 school year, the state added $2.1 billion to school funding to reduce district maintenance-and-operations tax rates by 17 cents.

The board adopted the 2010-11 budget in April, but it couldn't set the tax rate until receiving the certified tax rolls from the Harris County Appraisal District. It received that Sept. 3.

This is the third consecutive year the tax rate for debt service increased. The rate is in line with what had been predicted in the 2007 bond election, Anthony said.

Cy-Fair ISD has the fourth-lowest tax rate in the Houston area, according to the district. Houston ($1.15), Deer Park ($1.39) and Spring Branch ($1.394) have lower rates.

The Katy school district has the highest area rate at $1.526, unchanged from last year.

Cy-Fair ISD property values declined by about 2 percent from last year, Snow said.