PART 7: Taxing Rates

Have your property taxes been increasing, and you’re not sure why? I did a video series back in April kind of talking about this, and I want to do a follow-up. I’m going to insert a little video clip here shortly to kind of talk about where we are, because it’s September now, and I’m going to do a follow-up of where we are in the process.

The property tax amount that you pay in October is based on your assessed value, less any exemptions that you qualify for, and multiplied by the tax rate.

Now, the tax rate is not something that’s determined right now. That gets settled over the next several months by all the taxing entities, like your hospitals, your schools, your city, and that’s when you get your final tax bill in October after those rates are set.

In that video, I talked about what affects how much you pay in property taxes: your assessed value minus any exemptions that you have, and then also the tax rate.

And remember, the tax rate is determined by all the taxing entities. I talked to you about how assessed value is set by the appraisal district, and that happened back in April.

Since then, what’s happened is all your taxing entities start setting their budgets and the tax rates.

And if you’ve paid attention to your local newspaper in any way where you live, they’ve probably been posting things about schools’ budgets and tax rates. Are the tax rates increasing?

So, this is the final portion of how your actual tax amount is determined.

If you are in the City of El Campo, then you know that the El Campo ISD tax rates have been set, and so has the City of El Campo. That’s already been talked about, determined, and set.

So, we are now toward the end of September. Any beef that you had should have been discussed over the past couple of months when those taxing entities were trying to determine their budgets and set the tax rates.

And what that means is, come October, your tax bill is coming for the exact tax dollar amount that you’re going to owe for 2026.

So, previously, in that video about, “Hey, if you’re complaining about your tax rates,” you need to go to the taxing entity.

Whenever they’re going and having their budget meetings and they’re talking about increasing your tax rate, that’s how it affects you, property owners. That’s not when you go complain to the appraisal district. You go and talk specifically to the taxing entities.

It’s the final piece that brings this whole thing together and determines what your property tax dollar amount is for this year.

All right, we’re going to add this to the video series. Hope this helps. Have a good day.