By mid-July, most North Texas homeowners have made their peace with the appraisal notice: the value came in the spring, the protest either happened or did not, and the folder went back in the drawer. Which is exactly when a lot of people stop paying attention, one act too early. Because the appraisal is only half of your tax bill. The other half, the tax rate, has not been set yet, and the next six weeks are when every city council, county commissioners court and school board in the region decides it, in public, with a microphone available.
Here is how the late-summer rate season works, what the notices mean, and how to find out, address by address, exactly what each taxing unit is proposing to charge you.
Value times rate: the half you can still influence
Your bill is arithmetic: taxable value, set by the appraisal district and shaped by your exemptions, multiplied by the rates adopted by each unit that taxes your property. A Dallas homeowner typically pays the city, the county, the school district, the community college district and the hospital district; suburbs have their own stacks. The appraisal half of that equation closed in the spring. The rate half plays out from around early August into September, when units calculate and publish their proposed rates and then vote to adopt them, under the state’s Truth-in-Taxation framework laid out by the Texas Comptroller.
Two rates to know by name
The Truth-in-Taxation math produces two benchmark numbers for every taxing unit, and once you know them the whole late-summer ritual snaps into focus. The no-new-revenue rate is the rate that would raise the same total tax dollars as last year from the same properties; when values rise, that rate falls. If a council adopts a rate above it, the unit is collecting more revenue than last year, whatever anyone says about “not raising the tax rate.” The voter-approval rate sits higher and acts as the trigger: adopt a rate above that line and, for most units, state law sends the increase to the voters in an election. The Comptroller’s Truth-in-Taxation FAQ walks through how both are calculated.
The honest way to read a headline that says a city “held the tax rate flat” in a year when appraisals jumped: flat rate on higher values means a bigger levy. The no-new-revenue rate is the number that keeps everyone honest, which is precisely why the law makes units publish it.
The database that does the homework for you
This is the part most homeowners still have not discovered. State law requires that proposed rates, the benchmark rates, scheduled hearing dates and an estimate of what each proposal means for your specific property be posted in an online database, reachable through the state’s property tax transparency page at Texas.gov/PropertyTaxes. Type in your address and it lists every unit that taxes you, what each one is proposing, and when and where each will take public comment before voting. It updates through the season as units post their numbers, so a check in early August and another in late August tells you nearly everything.
The same page links each unit’s tax-rate history, so you can see whether this year’s proposal continues a trend or breaks one.
The hearing is short, public and yours
Before adopting a rate that exceeds the key benchmarks, a taxing unit must publish notice and hold a public hearing where residents can speak, under the hearing requirements the Comptroller summarizes. In practice that means an agenda item on an August or September evening, sign-up cards or an online form, and a couple of minutes at the microphone. Three sentences comparing the proposed rate to the no-new-revenue rate, said plainly by a resident, carry more weight in that room than most people assume, because almost nobody shows up. Council members notice when the room is not empty.
If speeches are not your style, the notices themselves list who to contact, and an email to your council member or school trustee the week before the vote is read by an actual human on a small staff.
What lands in October
Once the rates are adopted, the county tax offices assemble the actual bills, which typically go out in October, with payment due by January 31. Between now and then, the calendar is: proposed rates and hearing dates posted from early August, hearings and adoption votes through late summer, then the bill. If the number on that October statement is going to make you angry, late August is when being angry can still change something. October is just when you find out how it went.
One more nudge for the folks who protested their value this spring: rate season is the other half of the same fight, and it is the half where showing up is free, requires no evidence packet, and addresses the part of the bill that is genuinely still undecided. Mark the database check on the calendar for the first week of August. It takes five minutes, and it is your own money.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
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