Tax Commissioner Craig Bolio made the announcement in the so-called “December 1 letter” delivered to the Legislature on Wednesday. The annual letter forecasts the education tax yields for resident homeowners and the non-homestead tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year. A higher yield can translate to a lower tax rate.
In a press release, Bolio called the surplus “unprecedented,” explaining it was driven by higher-than-expected performance of the non-property tax revenues in the Education Fund, lower-than-expected costs for education property tax credits in the fiscal year 2022, and “enhanced surplus” from fiscal year 2021.