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Kerr County authorizes tax collector to calculate disaster voter-approval rate under Texas Property Tax Code 26.042
Summary
The court authorized the county tax officer to compute voter-approval tax rates for two special taxing entities using the disaster provision (Section 26.042 of the Texas Property Tax Code) to give those entities access to an 8% voter-approval rate option following the July 4 disaster.
Kerr County commissioners on July 7 unanimously authorized the county's tax officer to calculate the voter-approval rate for two taxing units — the Kerr County Lateral Roads and the Lake Indram Estates Road District — under Section 26.042 of the Texas Property Tax Code, a provision that applies when taxing units are located in a disaster area.
Why this matters: The special calculation allows the taxing officer to use an 8% voter approval threshold for maintenance-and-operations tax rate calculations rather than the normal 3.5% threshold above the no-new-revenue rate. County staff emphasized the authorization does not itself raise taxes; it permits the tax officer to use the disaster-related voter-approval computation if the taxing entities later choose to set rates that require voter approval procedures.
Court action: Bob Reeves (Bob Reeves), the official identified in the discussion as the designated tax officer, requested and received court authorization to perform the calculation. The motion passed unanimously. Reeves and other commissioners said the authorization is intended to give local taxing entities greater short-term cash-flow flexibility while they undertake disaster response and await FEMA reimbursement; they noted FEMA reimbursements can take years.
Ending: The court directed the tax officer to proceed with the calculations and said the county judge may sign the resulting order. Commissioners said the action is a preparatory step for budgeting and does not by itself change current tax rates.
