Cedar Park may drop its property tax rate by $0.001 for fiscal year 2019-20. Residents will likely pay more in property tax to the city, though, due to increasing home values. Cedar Park City Council voted 6-0 Aug. 22 to set a proposed tax rate of $0.448 per $100 of taxable value. Mayor Corbin Van Arsdale was absent during the meeting. If the rate is approved, this will be the seventh year in a row the city has reduced its tax rate, and this will be the lowest one the city has seen in 22 years, Cedar Park’s Assistant Finance Director Chad Tustison told council during a presentation Aug. 22. “A lot of this has to do with increased home values,” Tustison said. “We’ve been able to reduce the rate.” Two public hearings will take place prior to the tax rate adoption, since the proposed rate is higher than the effective rate, which is the rate needed to collect the same amount of revenue as the prior year on properties taxed in the prior year. The public hearings are scheduled for Sept. 12 and Sept. 19, and the budget and tax rate votes are scheduled for Sept. 26. Average home values have increased by 4.4% in Williamson County and 3.2% in Travis County since the previous fiscal year, Tustison said. If the proposed rate is approved, average Cedar Park homeowners in Williamson County could pay $57 more to the city in property taxes in the upcoming fiscal year, and average Cedar Park homeowners in Travis County could pay $61 more to the city, Tustison said. “This is just an average,” Tustison said. “Each resident will see a different impact based on exemptions, based on new improvement to the property, but ultimately [based on] what the home has been appraised for.” Cedar Park city staff presented a preliminary budget to Cedar Park City Council during a budget workshop Aug. 1.