Aransas County holds public hearing on proposed 2025 tax rate; adoption set for Sept. 22

Aransas County held a public hearing Sept. 8 on a proposed 2025 tax rate that county staff said would be used to fund the 2026 budget. County officials announced that the proposed tax rate will be adopted at the Commissioner's Court meeting scheduled for Sept. 22, 2025, at 9 a.m., with another public hearing to precede the adoption.

County staff described the proposed combined rate as 0.3785, and said that figure includes a debt component. Staff identified component rates as a debt rate of 0.06412, a county maintenance and operations rate of 0.285843, a mosquito rate of 0.009, a “brother bridal” (recorded in the hearing transcript as presented by staff) rate of 0.032453, and separate flood debt and flood maintenance-and-operations components. The county announced that the public hearing on the proposed rate would remain open for comments until the court recessed to the next agenda item and would reopen if members of the public wished to speak.

County staff also presented the newly required taxpayer-impact statement. Using appraisal-district figures, staff said the median homestead value in Aransas County is $276,890. Under the numbers presented at the hearing, staff estimated that a median homestead would pay about $1,024.50 under the current tax rate and about $1,048.03 under the proposed rate — a difference of about $23.53. Staff also provided a “no-new-revenue” comparison and said the no-new-revenue figure would produce an estimated tax of $982.72 for a median homestead; staff noted that the difference between the proposed rate and the no-new-revenue rate would be about $65.31.

During public comment, Anna Marshall (identified in the record as “Anna Marshall, Texas director”) told the court that tax bills will be mailed later than usual this year. Marshall said the county will likely mail bills in November to avoid sending separate notices that could confuse taxpayers because of a school-district election and that the delay is intended to reduce the need for corrective notices or refunds. “We’re gonna be a little bit later this year getting tax bills out … probably in November,” Marshall said.

No final vote on the tax rate occurred at the Sept. 8 hearing; the court left the hearing open and announced the formal adoption date of Sept. 22 at 9 a.m. for the court’s next action on the 2025 tax rate.