Williamson County at a glance

Williamson County at a glance (DRAFT – not published)

In short

About 727,000 people live in the county.¹ Its main budget spent $299.8 million in 2024-25.² It owed about $1.49 billion on loans.³ Its tax rate is lower than ten years ago.⁴ It has the top AAA credit grade.⁵

What the county does

The county runs courts, the jail, the sheriff, county roads, parks and elections. A five-member Commissioners Court sets the budget and the tax rate. See commissioners court.

Money in and out, 2024-25

• Main budget: $344.8 million in, $299.8 million out.²
• Property tax: about 79% of the main budget’s money.¹
• Savings: $187.2 million not set aside for anything, about 62.5% of a year’s spending.²
• More: county budget basics.

Tax rate

Fiscal year	County rate per $100
2016	48.2¢
2021	45.9¢
2023	37.6¢
2025	40.0¢
2026	41.4¢
2027	42.2¢

Source: county audit, tax rate table.⁴ 2026 and 2027: the state’s tax-rate site, county plus road levy added together.⁶

As home values rose, the rate went down. A lower rate can still mean a bigger bill if your value goes up. See how your property tax bill works.

Debt per person, 2016–2025

Year	Debt per person
2016	$1,936
2019	$1,517
2022	$1,832
2025	$2,158

Source: county audit, Table 10 (general bonded debt per person).⁷

Debt per person fell to a low in 2019. By 2025 it was the highest in ten years. The county sold new tax notes in 2026, after these numbers. It plans $232.3 million in debt payments this tax year.⁸ More: county debt explained.

The other side

• Fast growth. The county grew by about 200,000 people from 2016 to 2025.⁷ This page does not tie growth to any one cost.
• Top credit grade. S&P and Fitch both give the county AAA. The county says this lets it borrow at lower interest rates.⁵
• The county is one of several bills. People in Leander also pay city, school and college taxes, each for different services. Compare them on local governments compared.

Questions to ask

• Where does the commissioners court post spending by department for this year?
• How does the county report changes to the budget during the year?

Changes to this page

• Nov. 2, 2026: Added questions to ask.
• Nov. 2, 2026: We reworded the other-side points so they stick to what the sources show.

What you can do or watch next

• Start with county budget basics or county debt explained.
• Watch Commissioners Court agendas, posted before each Tuesday meeting.
• You can protest your home value; see how to protest your appraisal.

What we still don’t know

• Spending by department for 2025-26. It is in the county budget book, but we have not read those pages yet.

The 2025-26 budget

The county adopted a $702.4M budget for Oct 2025 to Sept 2026, up 11%.⁹ That is $401.2M for the General Fund, $78.5M for roads and bridges, and $222.7M to pay debt. It used about $37.1M of savings to balance, and set $20M aside to pay off debt early.⁹ The county has 2,060 full-time staff, not counting grant-funded or part-time jobs.⁹

Footnotes

1. Williamson County FY2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (saved copy): population 727,480; property tax is 79% of General Fund revenue; tax year 2025 rate $0.413776. Public copy: https://emma.msrb.org/P11938140.pdf (MSRB EMMA; same report). ↩ ↩²

2. Same report, General Fund budget vs. actual and fund balance notes. ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Texas Bond Review Board, local debt outstanding (data.texas.gov dataset 6d42-4z7a; saved copy), FY2025 principal $1,490,915,000. ↩

4. Same report, Direct and Overlapping Property Tax Rates table: $0.481529 (2016), $0.458719 (2021), $0.375608 (2023), $0.399999 (2025). ↩ ↩²

5. Same report: AAA from S&P and Fitch throughout 2025. ↩ ↩²

6. Williamson County Truth-in-Taxation site (the state-required tax-rate database linked from Texas.gov/PropertyTaxes), https://williamsonpropertytaxes.org, tax year 2026 (FY2027) rows, checked 2026-11-01. Williamson County: last year 0.369447, no-new-revenue 0.376230, voter-approval 0.405896, adopted 0.381218. Williamson County FM/RD (road levy): last year 0.044329, no-new-revenue 0.045317, voter-approval 0.047309, adopted 0.040329. Totals are our math. (/) ↩

7. Same report, Table 10, Ratios of General Bonded Debt Outstanding; our dataset. Population about 528,600 (2016) to 727,500 (2025), our math. ↩ ↩²

8. Williamson County, Notice About 2026 Tax Rates (Form 50-212). https://www.wilcotx.gov/DocumentCenter/View/20813/2026-Williamson-County-Notice-of-Tax-Rates (checked 2026-11-01). ↩

9. Williamson County Adopted Budget FY 2025–2026 (budget book), https://www.wilcotx.gov/DocumentCenter/View/17712/FY26-GFOA-Final; saved copy, retrieved Nov 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³