How has Leander's tax rate changed over 10 years?

In short

• The city tax rate fell from about 63 cents to about 42 cents per $100 of value from fiscal 2016 to fiscal 2025. That is a drop of about 34% (our math).¹²
• Over the same years, the city’s own population count more than doubled, from 41,481 to 92,872.¹
• City debt per resident went from $3,119 to $3,728. It went up and down, fell to $2,710 in 2024, then jumped in 2025.¹

Numbers marked “our math” are our estimates, not official figures. The notes show the inputs and the steps.

How it works

• The rate is per $100 of taxable value. A rate of 42 cents means $420 a year on $100,000 of taxable value.
• The city sets one rate with two parts. One part pays for daily services. The other pays back debt. See city tax rate and how the city sets its tax rate.
• The years here are city budget years. Fiscal 2025 ran from Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 30, 2025.¹

What the numbers show

Fiscal year	Tax rate per $100	City population (city count)	Debt per resident
2016	$0.632920	41,481	$3,119
2019	$0.551867	54,213	$3,764
2022	$0.479699	71,996	$3,361
2024	$0.417282	86,715	$2,710
2025	$0.417282	92,872	$3,728

Source: City of Leander annual financial report, fiscal 2025, statistical tables.¹

• The rate went down almost every year until fiscal 2024, then stayed the same.¹
• The number of residents grew by about 124% (our math).¹²
• Debt per resident rose in 2025 because the city borrowed more that year. See city 2025 certificates of obligation.¹

The other side

• A lower rate is not a lower bill. Your bill is the rate times your taxable value. Taxable value per resident more than doubled in these years, so a lower rate can still mean a higher bill. See city taxable value ten years.
• New property adds to the tax base. New homes and businesses add taxable value, so the city can collect more at the same or a lower rate.
• The city’s population count is its own estimate. It is a bit higher than the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate of about 91,100. See city population growth.
• Debt per resident can swing. One large borrowing can raise it in a single year, even if it falls later as loans are paid down.

Changes to this page

• Nov. 2, 2026: Rewrote the questions to ask so each is open, neutral and addressed to the public body.
• Nov. 2, 2026: We checked every figure against its source. We reworded the other-side points so they stick to what the sources show.

Questions to ask

• How much of the city’s tax money came from new property each year, by the city’s count?
• What does the city project for debt per resident?

What we still don’t know

• What a typical Leander home paid in city tax each year. This page does not use a typical-home value series.
• Rates before fiscal 2016. Older reports are on a site we do not use.

Footnotes

1. City of Leander Annual Financial Report FY2025, statistical section: property tax rates (levy rate column), ratios of outstanding debt, and demographic statistics (population). Public copy: https://emma.msrb.org/P11938164.pdf (MSRB EMMA; byte-identical to the saved copy). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

2. Our math. Rate change: (0.417282 − 0.632920) ÷ 0.632920 = −34.1%. Population change: (92,872 − 41,481) ÷ 41,481 = +123.9%. ↩ ↩²