Sugar Land and Missouri City taxpayers may be familiar with municipal utility districts, or MUDs, because of the taxes they pay to their local MUD for services, such as trash pickup and water service. Master-planned communities typically have a MUD handling the municipal services a city would provide, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. A levee improvement district, or LID, on the other hand, specifically maintains levees. Fort Bend County has 17 LIDs managing 60 miles of levees and 20 miles of drainage ditches and channels, according to Fort Bend Levee Improvement District No. 2. LIDs are not federally funded, so they rely on local ad valorem property taxes. Residents within a LID will pay property taxes to both their LID and their MUD, if they live inside both. Want to find out more? Each Fort Bend County commissioner maintains district information reports for LIDs and MUDs in their respective precincts.

For details, visit www.fortbendcountytx.gov.

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