The details
Bastrop County Judge Gregory Klaus listed several budget highlights, including a property tax rate increase from $0.40275 per $100 of taxable value to $0.42870.
For a homeowner with a home valuation of $250,000, it is an annual tax bill increase of about $65.
Although approximately $40.4 million has been collected in taxes so far for fiscal year 2024-25, Bastrop County budgeted for a total of $40.5 million.
For FY 2025-26, officials are aiming to generate even more in taxes with $44.5 million, according to county documents.
“We’re budgeting about $4.1 million more than we’ve currently collected [for FY 2024-25],” Precinct 2 Commissioner Clara Beckett said during the meeting.
What the experts say
Not wanting to dip into the fund balance if collected revenues fall short of what is budgeted, Beckett questioned how many times a shortfall has happened in recent years.
“We have historically collected 102% on average of what you’ve budgeted every year for the last 10 years,” Bastrop County Tax Assessor-Collector Ellen Owens told Beckett.
Also of note
The FY 2025-26 budget will raise approximately $5 million more in revenue from property taxes than the FY 2024-25 budget—an 8% increase. Of that amount, about $1.7 million will come from new property added to the tax roll, according to county documents.
However, Bastrop County is not expected to see every penny in FY 2025-26, as officials account for delinquency in the budgeting process.
Lyndsey Schroeder, a spokesperson for Bastrop County, told Community Impact in an email Aug. 22 that the Bastrop County Auditor’s Office will upload a budget book to its website after the document has been reviewed.
