GHS to hold public hearing on proposed tax rate

The Gonzales Healthcare Systems Board of Directors will hold a public hearing on the proposed tax rate for fiscal year 2023 at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 5, at the Thrive Healthplex, 1300 Captain Albert Martin Trail, Gonzales.

The board voted 7-2 to propose a tax rate of 30.5 cents per $100 valuation — a decrease of 1.5 cents from last year’s adopted tax rate of 32 cents.

The proposed tax rate is greater than the no-new-revenue rate of 25.89 cents per $100 valuation, but lower than the voter-approval tax rate of 31.46 cents. The no-new-revenue tax rate is the tax rate for the 2023 tax year that will raise the same amount of property tax revenue for GHS from the same properties in both the 2022 tax year and the 2023 tax year.  The voter-approval rate is the highest tax rate GHS could adopt without holding an election to seek voter approval of the rate.

While the tax rate is expected to drop by 4.69 percent, the average homestead value has increased from $139,153 to $151,365, an increase of $12,212, or 8.78 percent. As a result, the tax on the average homestead is expected to increase from $445.29 last year to $461.66 this year, an increase of $16.37, or 3.68 percent.

The total tax levy is expected to increase by $2,447,147, or 18.80 percent, from $13,015,209 last year to $15,462,356 this year.

Board members Kenneth Gottwald, Tim Markham, Stephanie Kodack, Lisa Gindler, Sascha Kardosz, Kerry Morgan and Gene Reed voted in favor of the proposed tax rate, while Greg Tieken and Wayne South voted against it.