McKinney City Council approved increasing the residential homestead exemption from $65,000 to $80,000 for residents age 65 and older and disabled individuals during a June 21 council meeting.
Chief Financial Officer Mark Holloway presented data showing the effect of increasing the exemption for people eligible and not eligible at a work session June 21. According to a presentation at the work session, for every $5,000 increase in the homestead exemption, eligible homeowners will pay $25 less in taxes at the current tax rate, and noneligible homeowners will pay $2.80 more in taxes given the current tax rate. The city's current tax rate is $0.497655 per $100 valuation.
After the presentation, City Council members evaluated the potential increase between either $10,000 or $15,000. Council members such as Patrick Cloutier and Geré Feltus shared their thoughts on increasing the exemption.
"I just want to be mindful that there are other sectors of this community that are already feeling the toils of the inflation that we are living in right now, so we don't want to overly burden them," Feltus said.
