Fort Bend County adopted a $439 million budget for fiscal year 2021-22 along with a tax rate of $0.4383 at the county Commissioners Court meeting Sept. 24. The $439 million budget is excluding the drainage district.

There has effectively been a 3.1% increase in the tax rate, Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers said at the Commissioners Court meeting.

“This is an actual reduction in the tax rate, but by virtue of the fact that the property values have gone up, the effect is an increase in taxes,” Meyers said.

The proposed budget increased by 6.2% from the budget adopted in FY 2020-21, according to county documents.

Of all county departments, the pretrial bond program saw the largest increase in its budget, from $220,790 in FY 2020-21 to $859,406 in FY 2021-22, an increase of 289.24%. The majority of departments saw either no change or increases to their budgets.