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Council accepts preliminary truth-in-taxation figures, sets benchmark for 2025 rate
Summary
The City Council accepted three preliminary truth-in-taxation inputs — a 99.45% anticipated collection rate, $102,903.71 in debt taxes collected in excess and $67,880.87 in refunds — noting final certified values are pending and staff will return if figures change.
The City Council voted unanimously to accept three preliminary inputs needed to calculate the city’s no-new-revenue (NNR) tax rate for tax year 2025: an anticipated collection rate of 99.45 percent, debt taxes collected in excess of $102,903.71 and total refunds of $67,880.87. The council’s action establishes the benchmark calculations the city will use when certified property values arrive later this month.
Those figures matter because they feed into the NNR tax-rate calculation, a metric the public can use to compare whether changes in property appraisals are driving higher tax bills or whether the tax rate should fall to produce the same revenue on the same properties. “So for the anticipated, tax year collection rate, it will be 99.45%,” said the finance staff member who presented the item. The presenter added, “The NNR, which is the non new revenue, non new revenue tax rate enables the public to evaluate the relationship between taxes for the prior year and for the current year based on a tax rate that would produce the same amount of taxes, non new taxes, if applied to the same properties that are taxed in both years. When appraisal values increase, the NNR tax rate should decrease.”
Council members and staff emphasized that the council’s acceptance of these numbers tonight does not finalize the tax rate for 2026; it sets the benchmark the city will use once certified values are received. “What we’re agreeing to tonight does not affect ultimately the tax rate we're setting for next year. We're just setting the benchmark, essentially,” a councilmember said during the discussion. Staff also noted the May/June certified values from Harris County’s tax assessor will be used when they are released and that the council may have to vote again if the certified numbers change.
A motion to accept the three preliminary truth-in-taxation items was made by a councilmember and seconded by another member. The mayor/presiding official called the vote, which passed 7–0. The presenter said the letter from Harris County certifying the numbers will be attached to the meeting minutes. Staff reminded the council that the latest the city can accept these preliminary figures is at the September meeting, and that final certified values are expected later this month.
Discussion-only items included an explanatory exchange for newer members and members of the public about how the NNR rate operates and why appraisal increases should lead to a lower NNR rate if taxing entities do not seek additional revenue. No additional policy direction or amendments were adopted during the vote.
The council’s acceptance sets the administrative baseline for the tax-rate calculation; staff said they will return with any revised numbers and that a final tax-rate decision will follow receipt of certified appraisal data from the county.
