News

Tax rates go down, but tax bills keep going up

Print this story | Email this story

The Leander City Council will make a motion tonight whether to approve a proposed tax rate that's lower than last year's. Cedar Park will do the same next week. County Commissioners have already lowered the county rate and Austin Community College's rate could decrease.

But why are annual tax bills going up? In a thriving community where homes, businesses and schools are sprouting like Texas bluebonnets in the spring, appraisal values continue to soar.

So despite tax rates dropping in the cities and county, higher home values and an increase in the Leander ISD rate have average tax bills at high dollar figures for residents.

The average home value in Leander is $162,182 and with the four major tax rates - city, county, LISD and ACC - the tax bill would be $4,128.32. Leander's average home value actually dropped this year, said Leander Finance Director Sharon Johnson. Last year, homes were appraised solely by Williamson County. This year those in Travis County were appraised by Travis County.

And Leander's budget is actually increasing by $1.36 million.

“The department heads have done an outstanding job of putting together a great budget that's similar to last year's,” Johnson said.

Johnson said expenses like street lighting have gone up and city employees will receive 4.4 percent salary increases to correlate with the increased cost of living.

New firefighters and policemen have been included in the budget. Most of the salary portions for nine firefighter positions will be taken from a nearly $1 million Homeland Security grant the city received to increase its fire protection.

Cedar Park's average home value is $189,900, resulting in an average bill of $4,618.17.

The Cedar Park Police Department has a five-year staffing plan to have 1.5 officers per 1,000 people. Right now there are 1.43 officers per 1,000. Along with public safety increases, staffing for the new recreation center has been included in the budget.

The proposed tax rate for Cedar Park is $0.489001 per $100 of property value. Leander's is $0.602590/$100. Leander ISD tax rate went up to $1.3792 - four cents more than last year.

Williamson County Commissioners set the county rate at $0.4683/$100 - down more than two cents from last year. Austin Community College has a proposed rate of $0.0954.

Home values are based on an average. Some houses went up in value and some went down from fiscal year 2007-08. Some owners will have a significant increase, some may pay exactly the same and some people actually have a decrease in tax bills based on property values.

E-mail editor@hillcountrynews.com

Reader Comments