Leander's tax rate: down 22% since 2021, while total city tax collected rose

Key facts

• 2026-27 rate: $0.417282 per $100¹
• 2020-21 rate: $0.536870²
• New property-tax money in 2026-27: $4.94M (+7.6%)³ (saved budget copy only)

The 30-second version

The tax rate has two parts: one to run the city, one to pay debt. Leander’s total rate dropped every year from 2021 to 2024, then held.² But taxable values grew, so the levy (the total tax the city collects) rose from $37.8M (2020-21) to $58.9M (2024-25).² For 2026-27 the city collects $4.94M more, $2.39M of it from new buildings.³

Deep dive

Year	Total	Operations	Debt
2020-21	0.536870	0.324870	0.212000
2021-22	0.479699	0.302134	0.177565
2022-23	0.432325	0.272325	0.160000
2023-24	0.417282	0.262857	0.154425
2024-25	0.417282	0.273604	0.143678
2025-26	0.417282	0.273604	0.143678
2026-27	0.417282

Resolved: the city adopted 0.417282 for 2025-26 by ordinance on Sept. 23, 2025 (the FY2027 budget also lists it). The tax ordinance in the council packet splits it the same way as the year before: 0.273604 to run the city and 0.143678 for debt. (Source: CivicClerk file 1563, saved copy.) A Sept. 2025 early bond paper had listed 0.434033, but the city did not pick that rate. The 2026-27 rate is also 0.417282 (M&O, the part to run the city, 0.274483; I&S, the part for debt, 0.142799).²³

How the city sets its rate

Each summer the county tax office calculates two rates for the city from the certified values.⁴

• No-new-revenue rate: the rate that would bring in about the same money as last year from the same properties.⁴
• Voter-approval rate: the highest rate the council can adopt without an election. For a city, it allows about 3.5% more operating money, plus debt payments.⁴ It replaced the old 8% “rollback rate” in 2020. See How rate limits changed in 2019.

For tax year 2026, the no-new-revenue rate was 0.430886 and the voter-approval rate was 0.467986. The council adopted 0.417282, below both.¹ The city still collects more. About half of the increase comes from new property added to the roll; the rest comes from property already taxed.³ So what: a lower or flat rate does not always mean a lower bill. If your home’s taxable value went up, your city tax can still go up.

The council posts these rates in August, holds a public hearing, and votes by late September.⁴ See the dates on Your property tax calendar.

The other side

• The city has kept the same total rate since 2023-24.²¹
• About half of the extra money for 2026-27 comes from new property added to the roll, not from higher bills on property already taxed.³
• This page does not show what the extra money pays for. See the city’s budget pages.

Questions to ask

• Where does the city post the signed tax ordinance?
• How much of the city’s tax growth comes from new homes, by the city’s count?

Changes to this page

• Nov. 2, 2026: Added questions to ask.
• Nov. 2, 2026: We fixed the link to the guide on how your property tax bill works. It now goes to the shared guide.
• Nov. 2, 2026: We checked every figure against its source. We reworded the other-side points so they stick to what the sources show. We made clear that only about half of the extra tax money comes from new property.³

What you can do or watch next

• Check your own bill: How your property tax bill works. Key dates: Your property tax calendar.
• Exemptions and help paying: Exemptions you may be missing · Help paying property taxes.
• Watch for the proposed 2027-28 rate next August, and the public hearing in September.
• You can speak at the tax-rate hearing or protest your home value with the appraisal district.

What we still don’t know

• A signed copy of the 2026-27 tax ordinance. We have the rate from the budget and the council packet draft, not the signed copy.
• How much new homes, not higher values, add to the city’s tax money.

For what the city pays to have its tax appraised and collected, see cost of collecting property tax.

Footnotes

1. Williamson County Truth-in-Taxation site (the state-required tax-rate database linked from Texas.gov/PropertyTaxes), https://williamsonpropertytaxes.org, tax year 2026, City of Leander row: adopted 0.417282, no-new-revenue 0.430886, voter-approval 0.467986. Checked 2026-11-01. Its ‘proposed’ column for the city repeats the voter-approval rate, so we do not use it. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Series 2025 CO official statement, Table 4. Final official statement, Series 2025 COs, dated Sept. 18, 2025, on MSRB EMMA: https://emma.msrb.org/P11885277.pdf (saved copy). Same table as the earlier preliminary statement. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. City of Leander FY2027 adopted budget. Budget. (Saved budget copy only: no public mirror found.) The levy figures ($4.94M, $2.39M) rest on this copy alone. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Texas Comptroller, “Truth-in-Taxation” (no-new-revenue and voter-approval rates; 3.5% for most units; notice, hearing and adoption). https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/truth-in-taxation/ (saved copy, retrieved Nov 2026) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴