Why does Comal County budget more tax revenue at the same rate?
Comal County’s unchanged tax rate accompanies $1.87 million more budgeted property-tax revenue. What homeowners pay still depends on their own taxable values and exemptions.
By Comal.News Government Desk · Source-linked local reporting
3 min read
Adopted budget examined
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Comal County expects $3,981,210 in property-tax revenue from new property in fiscal 2027, even as it keeps the total rate at $0.305015 per $100 of taxable value and budgets a $1,865,874 increase over last year.
The adopted fiscal 2027 budget describes the revenue increase as 1.7% over the fiscal 2026 budget. The new-property figure is a separate estimate, not the size of that year-over-year increase.
What it costs
The adopted budget lists the total county tax rate as $0.305015 per $100 of taxable value for both tax years 2025 and 2026. Its no-new-revenue and debt-rate figures changed, however, as the comparison below shows.
Rates listed in Comal County’s adopted fiscal 2027 budget for tax years 2025 and 2026, per $100 of taxable value
Rate
2025
2026
Total
$0.305015
$0.305015
No-new-revenue
$0.256116
$0.294552
Debt
$0.046000
$0.045024
The three rows describe different rate measures; they are not amounts to add together.
The county’s 2026 tax-rate listing breaks the $0.305015 total into a $0.273000 county rate and a $0.032015 lateral-road rate. That split describes the adopted rate; it does not translate the budget’s countywide revenue change into a bill for a particular property.
Who pays and who benefits
For homeowners, an unchanged county rate does not by itself determine whether their county tax bill changes; taxable value and exemptions also matter. The Comal Appraisal District explains that exemptions reduce taxable value and lists a 20% county homestead exemption. A bill comparison therefore requires the taxable values and applicable exemptions for the same property in both years.
These two figures in the county budget answer different questions. One compares budgeted revenue between fiscal years; the other estimates revenue attributable to property newly added to the tax roll. Treating the $3,981,210 as every homeowner’s increase, or subtracting it from the $1,865,874 to assign a change to existing owners, would skip the parcel-level tax-base comparison.
Two property-tax revenue measures in Comal County’s adopted fiscal 2027 budget
Measure
Amount
Increase over fiscal 2026 budget
$1,865,874 (1.7%)
Expected from new property
$3,981,210
The measures have different baselines and should not be presented as two estimates of the same increase.
What has to go right
Both revenue figures are budget estimates. For context, the fiscal 2026 adopted budget reported a 19.2% rise in budgeted property-tax revenue over the budget before it, while listing the same $0.305015 total rate that appears for tax year 2025 in the newer budget. The comparison shows why a rate alone cannot describe a countywide revenue forecast.
In the court’s August 6 discussion, the county judge said exemptions affect taxable value. Her explanation points to a factor a parcel comparison must account for; the adopted budget’s countywide totals alone cannot say what any one owner will pay.
What to check next
A comparison of the county’s certified tax rolls and rate-calculation worksheets is the next public-record check on how existing parcels contributed to the revenue change. Readers can inspect the adopted fiscal 2027 budget for the countywide estimates, then compare their own property’s taxable values and exemptions across the two tax years before drawing a conclusion about their bill.
From the source record
County budgetFiscal 2027 adopted budget
Total tax rate: $0.305015 per $100 taxable value. Budgeted property-tax revenue: $1,865,874 above the prior budget. Revenue expected from new property: $3,981,210.
