Dallas County is proposing a property tax rate that would raise the county’s average tax bill for homeowners over 8 percent.
Data from the Dallas Appraisal District shows that from 2013-2018, the county’s average property tax bill for homeowners increased 48.7 percent, from $313 to $466. The newly proposed property tax rate, $0.243100 per $100 valuation, is above their “effective” tax rate, $0.239549 per $100 valuation. This would see the county’s average property tax bill for homeowners spike 8.45 percent from last year, $466 to $505, more than a 61 percent increase 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.
Dallas County has been part of a software boondoggle that has burnt Dallas County property taxpayers for tens of millions of dollars, with nothing to show for it. County commissioners, frustrated with the project, voted earlier this year to pause funding for part of it and to hire a consultant to analyze the failed software enterprise.
A second public hearing on this proposed rate will be held on September 3 at 9 a.m. in the Commissioner’s Courtroom at 411 Elm Street, and commissioners will meet to vote on the tax rate on September 17 at the same time and location.
