Van Zandt commissioners adopt 0.3996 tax rate after public hearing, staff flags earlier calculation error

Van Zandt County commissioners on Sept. 29 adopted a 2025 property tax rate of $0.3996 per $100 of valuation after a public hearing and subsequent vote.

The proposed rate, the court said during the hearing, is below the computed voter-approval rate of 0.417681 per $100, which means the county is not required to hold an election on the rate. County staff also told the court that the no-new-revenue rate and the voter-approval calculations had been revised after a miscalculation was discovered while preparing truth-in-taxation forms.

Why this matters: The adopted rate, combined with higher average taxable values, will increase the county’s overall levy compared with 2024 and affects typical homeowners and county revenue planning.

In the public hearing, resident Ronnie (identified in the record as a public commenter) criticized what he described as a pattern of setting tax rates at the maximum the county could adopt and urged commissioners to “take care of the people. That’s what your job is.” Ronnie also recommended more direct…