Government
BY HALEY MCLEOD & KAROLINE PFEIL
Tax rate could rise as new growth slows in Lakeway With new growth in Lakeway beginning to slow down, city officials are sharing preliminary budget plans for the upcoming fiscal year, which could include a slightly higher tax rate. At an Aug. 4 City Council meeting, Lakeway City Manager Joseph Molis shared details on what he called the “first pass” of Lakeway’s fiscal year 2025- 26 budget. What’s happening An example tax rate included in the FY 2025-26 draft budget was $0.16355—a change of $0.00375, or a 2.3% increase, from last year’s $0.1598, according to Molis’ presentation. In terms of impacts for households, this would mean a total yearly average tax of $1,384, or roughly a $44 increase per year. Council will formally propose a tax rate at their Aug. 18 meeting. Over the last 11-12 years, new growth remained
Bee Cave receives triple-A bond rating Bee Cave officials shared details regarding the city’s receipt of a triple-A bond rating, issued by S&P Global Ratings, at a July 29 City Council meeting. The overview The rating was assessed by S&P, or Stan- dard & Poor’s, Global Ratings, to support the city’s bond offering for its new public safety building project. The rating is the highest a municipality can receive, demonstrating a high level of creditworthiness for the city of Bee Cave. As a result of the rating, the city may ben- efit from lower interest rates and a greater appeal to investors for its projects, said Bee Cave financial adviser Jennifer Ritter with Specialized Public Finance.
Property growth in Lakeway
The need to raise property taxes has previously been offset by new property added onto the tax roll, but that trend is changing, officials said.
2024-25 2025-26* 2023-24 2021-22 2022-23 FY 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21
1.29% 1.32%
1.13%
1.00%
1.21% 1.20%
1.37%
0.83%
0.40%
0% 0.5% 1% 1.5% 2% 2.5%
New property % of total revenues
*PROJECTED
SOURCE: CITY OF LAKEWAY/COMMUNITY IMPACT
mostly steady—it made up 2.05% of the city’s revenues in 2014 and held steady at around 1.5% on average over the years, Molis said. However, it dropped in FY 2024-25 to 0.83% and is expected to drop to 0.4% in FY 2025-26, according to Molis’ presentation.
Flooding poised to cause county tax rate increase Travis County officials approved a measure July 29 to implement a one-year 9.12% tax rate hike in order to pay for recent severe flooding damages.
The impact About $72 of the $200 increase would go toward recovery efforts.
property taxes without needing voter approval. The approved higher property tax rate for the fiscal year 2025-26 budget year is roughly three cents more per $100 of property value, at $0.375845 per $100 valuation. This tax increase is only a one-time disaster-re- lated increase and will raise around $42 million. The new tax rate will be adopted Sept. 23, with a final budget vote Sept. 30.
FY 2024-25 tax rate
Proposed FY 2025-26 tax rate
$0.344445
$0.375845
The average homeowner can expect to see a roughly $200 increase to their property tax bill. The breakdown Due to state and federal disaster declarations following the flood, the county is allowed to raise
Average taxable home value Annual property taxes
$503,929
$515,213
$1,735.76
$1,936.40
SOURCE: TRAVIS COUNTY/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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LAKE TRAVIS - WESTLAKE EDITION
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