At city council meetings Thursday, Taylor’s leaders approved a property tax rate of 59 cents per $100 of appraised property value for 2024 and Hutto City Council approved a property tax rate of almost 40 cents.
Municipal tax rates are guided by state laws. Taylor’s action reflects the highest amount the city can increase the tax rate without voter approval. Hutto’s vote reflects the no-new-revenue rate that aims to keep the average property owner’s tax payment at the same amount as the previous year.
“We built this budget to be a flat budget. We told the departments they couldn’t have any additional funding for operational expenses. I think we’ve done a good job of controlling costs,” said Jeff Wood, Taylor financial director. “So people are getting property tax relief, but the reason the tax bills are going up is strictly because of the debt that has been issued in the past.”
Wood said the city is collecting less property taxes to fund general maintenance and operation, but more property taxes to pay for the increasing debt. The total amount of debt obligation secured by property taxes for Taylor is $185,030,862, according to city documents.
Taylor has one of the highest tax rates in the area. Because Taylor’s home values are lower and the city is smaller, officials say they need to charge a higher rate in order to collect more money from property owners.
“We have to generate the same type of dollars off an average house as our sister cities do because we have to buy the same fire trucks that they have to buy,” Wood said.
Meanwhile in Hutto, the City Council deliberated until almost 2 a.m. cutting money out of a proposed General Fund budget that was originally based on a tax increase. They succeeded in reducing expenses enough to operate the city without having to increase the amount of money the municipality collects from existing taxpayers and passed a no-new-revenue rate.
The municipal rates are just part of the total tax bill the county will send out beginning as soon as next month.
Taylor property owners pay taxes to Williamson County, Taylor Independent School District and Lower Brushy Creek Water Control and Improvement District as well as city taxes.
In 2023, that tax burden added up to $2.122484 for every $100 of appraised property value.
Property owners in Hutto pay taxes to Williamson County, Hutto Independent School District, Emergency Services District No. 3, Upper Brushy Creek Water Control and Improvement District and Williamson County Higher Education Center in addition to the city taxes.
In 2023, the total tax rate for those entities added up to $2.162379 per $100 of property value.
Property owners can visit tax.wilcotx.gov to estimate the amount of their tax bill based on their current valuation.
