The Port Aransas Independent School District Board of Trustees has approved a $6.2 million budget for the 2007-08 school year and set a tax rate of $1.05838 per $100 valuation.

Trustees voted 7-0 to approve the budget and then voted unanimously again to approve the new tax rate during a meeting on Thursday, Aug. 30.

Public hearings on both matters drew no speakers.

The $1.05 tax rate is about 34 cents less than last year's rate, partly because of requirements in House Bill 1, passed last year.

The rate is lower also because property values in Port Aransas have risen, so it doesn't take such a high tax rate for the school district to make bond payments, according to PAISD Superintendent Billy Wiggins.

The average market value of a home in PAISD was $201,623 last year, according to school district officials. This year, it's $243,707.

The new budget includes raises for PAISD employees averaging about 4 percent each. Each teacher will get an average of about $1,800 more per year.

The budget also includes a 2.2 percent raise that trustees earlier approved for Wiggins. The raise lifted Wiggins' annual salary to $110,000.