Reading your tax bill: who gets each line (made-up example)

In short

One tax bill pays several groups. The appraisal district sets your home’s value. Each group sets its own rate and some of its own breaks. The county tax office sends one bill and passes the money on. In our made-up example, the city, county, road and college lines come to about $3,666 a year. The school line is the biggest, but its 2026 rate is not final until after the Nov. 3 vote.¹²³

The 30-second version

• This is not a real bill. We made up a home worth $400,000. The owner lives there (homestead) and is under 65.
• Value: set by the appraisal district, not by the city or county.⁴
• Rate: each group votes on its own rate each fall.⁵
• Bill: the county tax office sends it and collects for the others.⁶
• Take-away: to question a line, go to the group that set it.

The example, line by line

Home value $400,000. Take off each group’s homestead break. Then multiply by the rate for each $100.⁷³

Line on the bill	Who sets the rate	Homestead break	Taxed value	2026 rate per $100	Tax
City of Leander	City Council	$5,000 (or 1% if more)	$395,000	$0.417282	$1,648
Williamson County	Commissioners Court	$5,000 (or 5% if more)	$380,000	$0.381218	$1,449
County roads (FM/RD)	Commissioners Court	$3,000	$397,000	$0.040329	$160
Austin Community College	ACC board	$5,000 (or 1% if more)	$395,000	$0.103643	$409
Subtotal (no school line)					$3,666
Leander ISD	School board (and voters)	$140,000	$260,000	after Nov. 3	see below

How one line works: $380,000 ÷ 100 × $0.381218 = $1,449.³

The school line. The taxed value is $260,000. Each 1 cent of school rate adds $26 to this bill.³ We will add the rate after the Nov. 3 vote is final.

Who sets which part

• Value (all lines): the appraisal district. You can protest it in spring. See how to protest your appraisal and reading your appraisal notice.⁴
• Breaks: the state sets the school break. Cities, counties and colleges can add their own.⁷ For people 65 or older, or disabled, Leander ISD takes $63,000 more off (the state’s $60,000 plus $3,000 of its own), the county $125,000, the city $10,000 and the college $75,000. The county, city and college also freeze those owners’ taxes.⁷⁸
• Rates: each group’s board votes in August or September. A big rise can trigger an election.⁵
• The bill: the county tax office mails it in the fall. It is usually due Jan. 31.⁶

Your bill may have other lines

• Some homes pay a utility district (MUD or WCID), or an emergency services district outside city limits. Our example has none.
• A 10% yearly cap on homestead value can lower your taxed value.⁴

The other side (counterweight)

• Our sample home is made up. The middle LISD-area home was valued near $443,000 in 2025.⁹
• Rates are not the whole story. The county’s rate went up a little, but it equals the “no-new-revenue” rate. That means about the same money from the same homes.¹
• The state pays schools to make up for much of the $140,000 break. So the break is not just a cut to schools.

Changes to this page

• Nov. 2, 2026: We changed wording so it says no more than our sources show.
• Nov. 2, 2026: Added questions to ask.

What we still don’t know

• The 2026 Leander ISD rate, until the Nov. 3 result is final.
• What a real tax-office bill looks like line by line. We did not use a real bill.

Questions to ask

• How can an owner get a line-by-line copy of a real bill from the tax office?
• Where does the tax office post each unit’s adopted rate?

Footnotes

1. Williamson County Truth-in-Taxation site (the state-required tax-rate database), https://williamsonpropertytaxes.org, tax year 2026 rows, checked 2026-11-01. City of Leander adopted 0.417282; Williamson County adopted 0.381218 (no-new-revenue 0.376230); FM/RD adopted 0.040329. Totals are our math. ↩ ↩²

2. Austin Community College, “Property Taxes” (board-approved 2026 rate $0.103643). https://offices.austincc.edu/finance-and-administration/property-taxes/ (saved copy, retrieved Nov 2026) ↩

3. Our math from the rates and breaks above. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. Texas Comptroller, “Valuing Property” (appraisal district sets value; 10% homestead limit). https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/valuing-property.php ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Texas Comptroller, “Truth-in-Taxation.” https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/truth-in-taxation/ ↩ ↩²

6. Texas Comptroller, “Property Tax Basics”; Williamson County tax office. https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/basics.php ↩ ↩²

7. Williamson County Tax Office, “2026 Tax Rates and Exemptions by Jurisdictions.” https://www.wilcotx.gov/DocumentCenter/View/22307 (read 2026-11-01). Same amounts as the appraisal district’s 2025 list. ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. City of Leander FY2027 adopted budget, budget message (local option exemptions). https://www.leandertx.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/397 (saved copy) ↩

9. WCAD Annual Report 2025, median appraisal by school district. ↩