Dallas County narrowly passes 1-cent property tax cut

Dallas County commissioners just passed a new $1.8 billion budget — complete with a property tax cut — but not without resistance.

Dallas County will collect about 22 cents per $100 of assessed property value going forward. While that’s only about a cent less than last year, it’s the lowest tax rate adopted since 2011, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Two of the five commissioners voted against the new tax rate and budget: County Judge Clay Jenkins and Commissioner J.J. Koch. Both said that the tax cut should have gone further.

Back in August, Dallas County Budget Director Ronica Watkins provided the commissioners with four possible options for property tax relief. Jenkins and Koch were in favor of a tax rate that would have been closer to a 1.4 cent reduction from the current rate of 23 cents per $100 of assessed property value.

The area’s red hot housing market has led to new assessed valuations that will leave many homeowners paying significantly more in property taxes even with a major reduction in the tax rate. Jenkins said that coming on top of general inflation, the higher tax bills will be too burdensome, and the county should do more to lower them.

“When taxpayers are feeling a bite from so much inflation, whether it’s at the grocery store, the gas pump, or their taxes. So, this is a year where I’d like to see us take as little as possible,” Jenkins said.

In the end, the majority settled on just the one cent reduction.

With the new rate, a home currently valued at $360,000 would pay the county $785 in 2023, however the likelihood of a DFW home remaining the same price is slim. The Dallas Central Appraisal District estimates that an average property’s market value surged by 24.5 percent over the past year.

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— Maddy Sperling