The City of Bedford has proposed a property tax rate that would increase the city’s average property tax bill for homeowners over 9 percent from just last year, from $1,142 to $1,252.
Data from the Tarrant Appraisal District shows that Bedford’s average property tax bill for homeowners increased over 55 percent from 2013–2018, from $733 to $1,142. Their proposed rate, $0.56900 per $100 valuation, is above their “effective” rate, $0.524732 per $100 valuation, and would increase the average property tax for homeowners over 9 percent from just a year ago and over 70 percent from 2013.
The “effective” tax rate, also called the “no-new-revenue” rate, adjusts as property values change to keep taxpayers’ bills more or less the same from one year to the next, in the aggregate, though individual results vary based on valuations and exemptions.
Texas’ Truth in Taxation laws require taxing entities to calculate and publish their effective rate each year to ensure the public is informed of any property tax increases, because year-over-year rate comparisons are meaningless as they don’t account for changing property values.
Taxpayers still have time to voice their opinion on these proposed tax rates.
A second public hearing will be at 6:30 p.m. on September 3, at Bedford City Hall. Mayor Jim Griffin and councilmembers Rusty Sartor, Dan Cogan, Amy Sabol, Michael Boyter, Ruth Culver, and Roger Fisher will vote on the tax rate on September 10.
According to Bedford City Secretary Michael Wells, Mayor Jim Griffin resigned September 3.
Information in this article has been updated since publication.
