Collin County is experiencing growing pains — and that means the cost of living in this fast-growing region may go up as local governments figure out their budgets.
Many cities are keeping property tax rates the same or even lowering them. But rising home values mean bills will likely still increase.
KERA's Collin County reporter Caroline Love sat down with KERA's Justin Martin to break down what this means for your pocketbook.
JUSTIN MARTIN: So Caroline, help me understand this. How can property tax bills increase if the rate is going down?
CAROLINE LOVE: Property taxes are based off a home's taxable value and the county appraisal district determines that every year. So if your home is worth more, the value went up, then you have more taxable value than you did the previous year.
It's basic math, right? If one number in the equation goes up but the other number goes down, you're still going to get a higher number than you would with the other equation. But it's good PR for local governments to be able to say that they lowered the property tax rate or if they kept the same property tax rate.
So even though bills are increasing, they're going to talk about how it's low or it's the same because it looks better for them than saying, hey, even though the rate's going down, your home's worth more, so you're still going to be giving us more money.
JUSTIN MARTIN: Speaking of tax rates, Collin County is keeping the same property tax rate as last year. What does that mean for, say, the sheriff's office and the jail? I seem to remember things were tense during budget talks over this funding.
CAROLINE LOVE: The county budget is funded by property taxes, things like money for the sheriff's office for running the jail comes from those property taxes. And Collin County started keeping the tax rate the same instead of going down to the no-new-revenue rate around a few years ago. And what the no-new-revenue rate does is it keeps the property tax revenue the same, even though home values went up.
That hasn't been possible lately in Collin County with the increasing demand for services as more people move to the area. So more people means more people in the jail. And Sheriff Jim Skinner and county commissioners have clashed over that issue. The jail's under construction, and so he's saying he needs more detention officers to guard holes in the wall. And the county has spent a lot of money on overtime at the jail, and it's pretty full.
What ended up happening is the commissioners opted to do some reorganization, as they say, and they ended up cutting some positions in the sheriff's office to pay for more detention officers. And Skinner warned that will have consequences.
SKINNER: The jail will be a more dangerous place, given some of the decisions that we've had to make.
CAROLINE LOVE: But like I said, the county's growing, and that means more people at the jail, and more people in the jail means they need more detention officers.
JUSTIN MARTIN: I want to talk more about growth. How are cities in Collin County handling that challenge?
CAROLINE LOVE: So you're gonna hear me say over and over again that this is a balancing act. More people means more need for services. More people checking out books at the library, and more people driving on the roads and bumping into potholes, more people calling 911.
But it's a balancing act because cities want people to keep moving to their area and they're moving there for affordability. So they don't wanna raise property tax rates too high because otherwise, people might go move over to the neighboring city that's cheaper.
JUSTIN MARTIN: There's a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that could increase the cap for homestead exemptions if it passes. What does that mean for local government?
CAROLINE LOVE: So first, let's talk about what is a homestead exemption?
A homestead exemption allows a homeowner to have up to $100,000 of their property's value exempt from being taxed by a taxing entity. You have to prove it's your primary residence and it needs to be at least 20 acres.
For example, if my house is worth $500,000, then I would have $400,000 that could be taxed. And this amendment, which is on the ballot in November, would increase that limit to $140,000.
More value-exempt means less taxable value. And that's great if you're a taxpayer, but if you are a local government trying to get money to pay for city services, that means you might have to raise property tax rate to get the same amount of revenue.
Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.
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