New Year, New Tax Rate

The City of Dripping Springs is re-evaluating its tax rate for this year, given the booming growth of Dripping Springs and the Texas Hill Country.

The city council held a special meeting to discuss the budget on Wednesday, Aug. 25. All council members were present, achieving the super-quorum required for a special meeting. Only one item was on the agenda: discussing and considering approval of the local property tax rate for the 2021–2022 fiscal year.

“This is a formality required by law to establish a tax rate,” said Mayor Bill Foulds. “This is what we anticipate it to be, but this is not taking the formal action of actually setting the tax rate.” The setting of the tax rate for the 2021–2022 fiscal year is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 21.

The proposed tax rate is $0.19 per $100 valuation. This rate is the same as was approved last fall, but it is expected to generate more in property tax revenue during the coming fiscal year compared to 2020–2021.

The increase in revenue is, in large part, due to increased property value, new property construction and annexations throughout the previous year.

For a $768,000 home — the median value of a home in the city as of July 2021, according to Realtor. com — Dripping Springs property owners can expect to pay about $1,459 in property taxes to the city. This median value trended up 48.6% over the past year, according to the same data.