Williamson County Commissioners Court adopted a total tax rate of $0.476529 per $100 of valuation. The adopted tax rate is a half penny decrease from last year’s county tax rate. For the average homestead valued at $253,380, this will be an increase of approximately $7.40 per month due to an increase in the average home value of 9.07 percent. The tax rate will effectively be raised by 5.87 percent for maintenance and operations.
The county tax rate is comprised of three tax rates. The Court approved a general fund tax rate of $0.269029, which is a reduction of 1/2 cent from the current tax rate. The Road & Bridge tax rate was adopted at $0.0400 cents, and the debt service tax rate at $0.167500 cents per $100 of valuation. Both the Road & Bridge and debt service tax rates are the same as last year. This is the second consecutive year that the general fund tax rate has decreased a half cent.
County Judge Dan A. Gattis stated, “Once again, we are focusing on paying down our debt for capital improvements and have been successful at doing that and being able to reduce the general fund tax rate by a half cent. Our budget includes $10.1 million for debt defeasance and reflects the challenges we face in being one of the fastest growing counties in not only Texas, but the United States.”
The Commissioners Court adopted the county budget on August 30, 2016. The general fund budget for FY 2016-2017 is $179,871,807; the Road & Bridge budget is $29,505,841 and included an additional $1 million for rehabilitation of neighborhood streets and $1 million toward the long-range transportation plan for engineering and right-of-way purchases; and the Debt Service budget, which is repaying the debt associated with road, park and other capital improvements, is $93,160,731 and includes $10.1 million for paying down existing debt.
