Court directs budget office to compute special tax rate for 2025 disaster recovery; estimate ~$42.25M available

On July 29 Commissioners Court voted unanimously to adopt an order directing the county budget officer to calculate the FY2026 property‑tax rate in the manner of a special taxing unit because of the county’s declared disaster from July storms and flooding. Planning & Budget Office director Travis Galvin presented the calculation and said applying the special taxing approach yields a proposed tax rate for tax year 2025 of 37.5845¢ per $100 of taxable value (33.3824¢ maintenance & operations; 4.2021¢ debt service).

Galvin said the calculation would enable the county to make available roughly $42,252,976 as a one‑time disaster funding reserve to support recovery operations and repairs. He provided estimated impacts to typical tax bills: for the average taxable homestead (a 2.4% year‑over‑year assessed value increase) the combined annual tax impact would be approximately $200.64, of which about $71.66 would be attributable to the disaster portion; the county also affirmed existing homestead exemptions, including the 20% homestead exemption and an expanded 65/disabled exemption adopted earlier in the budget process.

The court approved the order directing the budget officer to compute the rate so the county can publish a preliminary budget and the required tax‑notice materials for public hearing and public comment. Commissioners and staff said the funds are intended as one‑time resources to fund recovery (road/bridge repairs, emergency assistance and debris operations) and that future tax rates will be adjusted to remove the disaster portion after use.

Ending: The county will upload the preliminary budget and tax notice information to the CAD transparency portal and move forward with hearings; staff will continue to pursue state and federal reimbursement where eligible.