College Station's City Council voted unanimously Thursday night to hold a public hearing on a proposed property tax rate of 53.0254 cents per $100 of valuation for fiscal year 2027, setting the hearing for 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27, in the City Hall council chambers.
The vote does not adopt a tax rate. As staff explained to the council, the action sets the rate at which the public hearing will be advertised, which functions as a ceiling: the council can still adopt a lower rate after the hearing, but not a higher one. The final votes on the budget and the tax rate come after the Aug. 27 hearing.
One council member was absent, with the absence excused at the start of the meeting.
Why the math is harder this year
Maryanne Leonard, the city's director of fiscal services, walked the council through an unusual starting point: the certified taxable values the city received from the appraisal district begin roughly $2 billion below the $16.2 billion certified last year, once adjustments from appraisal review board protests and litigation are counted.
On top of that, state legislation on business personal property removed about $160 million more from the rolls. New construction added about 3 percent in new value, but existing values across the city decreased overall.
