Orange County managers explain revenue-neutral rate as dozens of residents urge tax relief

Orange County officials presented the county—s revenue-neutral tax rate and fielded questions after a long public-comment period in which multiple residents asked the board to slow, soften or reconsider how the revaluation would affect longtime and fixed-income homeowners.

County Manager Myron explained the mechanics used to compute the revenue-neutral rate for fiscal 2026: the county—s assessed property tax base (including real property, personal property, public utilities and motor vehicles), an allowance for expected appeals (the tax office applied a preliminary 5% reduction to the base), and an allowance for natural growth (the county used a 2.52% average growth rate). Using those inputs the manager said the county calculated a revenue-neutral rate of 0.6384 per $100 of assessed value; that rate is the rate that would produce the roughly same property-tax levy as the previous year after the new assessed…