In September 2026, three of Texas’s biggest local governments did something they hadn’t done in years: they raised the property tax rate. Harris County adopted what local press called the largest increase in county history. Collin County raised its rate for the first time in 33 years, according to its county judge. San Antonio raised its city rate for the first time since 1992.

None of these Texas property tax rate increases went to voters. That wasn’t a loophole. Each rate stayed at or under a line in state law called the voter-approval rate, and below that line elected officials can raise your rate on their own. This article covers what each government adopted, why the rate went up, and what the increase will add to the bill that arrives this fall.

The short version

Harris County: The combined rate for the county and three related districts rose from $0.62413 to $0.67147 per $100 of taxable value, an increase of about 7.6%. The county’s own general rate rose about 9.6%.
Collin County: The rate rose from $0.149343 to $0.151414 per $100, about 1.4%. That is roughly 2.4% above the no-new-revenue rate.
City of San Antonio (Bexar County): The council approved the city’s first rate increase in more than three decades on a 7–4 vote on Sept. 17, 2026.
None of the three needed an election, because none adopted a rate above its voter-approval rate.

Harris County: the biggest jump, and where it comes from

Harris County Commissioners Court sets four tax rates each fall: the county’s own rate plus the rates for the Flood Control District, the Port of Houston Authority, and the Hospital District (Harris Health). The rates below come from the county’s FY2027 proposed budget, which lists the 2025 adopted rates and the 2026 voter-approval rates. The adopted 2026 figures are the ones FOX 26 Houston reported the court approved (2026).

Entity	2025 adopted	2026 voter-approval rate	2026 adopted	Change
Harris County	$0.38096	$0.41750	$0.41750	+9.6%
Flood Control District	$0.04966	$0.05266	$0.05266	+6.0%
Port of Houston Authority	$0.00590	$0.00603	$0.00603	+2.2%
Hospital District (Harris Health)	$0.18761	$0.23917	$0.19528	+4.1%
Combined	$0.62413	$0.71536	$0.67147	+7.6%

Per $100 of taxable value. The 2025 rates and 2026 voter-approval rates come from Harris County’s FY2027 proposed budget, Vol. I, pp. 14 and 27. The 2026 adopted rates are as reported by FOX 26 Houston. Change is our own arithmetic.

Two things stand out. First, the county and Flood Control adopted exactly their voter-approval rates. Those are the highest rates they could set without an election. Second, the combined 67-cent rate is still about 4.4 cents under the combined voter-approval ceiling of $0.71536, but only because the Hospital District stayed well below its own ceiling. Some coverage described the whole package as “the maximum allowed without voter approval.” That is accurate for the county’s general rate and for Flood Control. It is not accurate for the combined total.

According to the county’s budget book, the combined rate had been held steady for more than a decade and then lowered every year from 2019 through 2023. In the county’s own table, the combined rate never went above $0.62998 between 2017 and 2025. The 2026 rate of $0.67147 is higher than every year in that table.

Why the ceiling went up: values fell

Many homeowners don’t expect this part. The county’s budget office wrote that the 2026 voter-approval rate rose partly because of “negative taxable value growth for existing properties (a 1% drop)”. It also cited the 3.5% multiplier allowed by law, state-authorized adjustments for indigent defense, inmate housing and tax-increment zones, an adjustment for Harris Health’s indigent care spending, and more debt for county projects, flood work and a new hospital (FY2027 proposed budget, p. 13).

The math works like this: when existing property is worth less, the county needs a higher rate just to collect the same amount of money. A falling value total pushes the no-new-revenue rate up, and the voter-approval rate is built on top of it.

What it costs a typical Harris homeowner

The county’s budget office estimated that the average residential homestead in Harris County would pay $1,344 in county property tax at the maximum rate, up from $1,202 last year, an 11.8% increase. That estimate covers the county’s own rate only. It excludes Flood Control, the Port and the Hospital District, and it assumes the 20% county homestead exemption. The same document puts the average homestead’s appraised value at $402,489, up from $394,375 (p. 41). Because the county adopted that maximum rate, the estimate applies.

Press estimates for the combined bill don’t agree with one another. Reported figures range from about $120 to about $200 more per year for an average home. We are not choosing one. You can calculate your own: multiply your taxable value (after exemptions) by the change in each rate and divide by 100. For example, a home with $300,000 of taxable value for every Harris County entity would owe about $142 more from the combined 4.734-cent increase, if its taxable value stayed the same. That figure is our arithmetic, not a county estimate.

The vote was split. Commissioner Tom Ramsey voted against the county rate. Reports differ on whether County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who called the budget unsustainable, abstained or was absent for the rate vote. The county was trying to close a projected shortfall of roughly $180 million (Community Impact, 2026). The budget office’s own May forecast had shown a $257 million deficit if the county held to the no-new-revenue rate, compared with $129 million at the voter-approval rate, before healthcare costs pushed the gap to $181 million (p. 15).

Collin County: a small increase that broke a long streak

Collin County’s increase is small in cents. It stands out because the county had not raised its rate in decades. The Collin County Tax Assessor-Collector’s tax rate history shows the county rate falling or holding flat every year from $0.245 in 2006 to $0.149343. The county kept that $0.149343 rate for 2023, 2024 and 2025.

The county’s signed 2026 tax rate calculation worksheet (Comptroller Form 50-856, dated July 30, 2026) sets out the choices:

No-new-revenue rate: $0.147806
Voter-approval rate: $0.156434 (including unused increment from prior years)
De minimis rate: $0.149277

The court adopted $0.151414: $0.109564 for operations and $0.041850 for debt (Murphy Monitor, 2026). That is 1.39% above last year’s rate and about 2.4% above the no-new-revenue rate. Both figures are correct and describe different things, which is why press reports on this vote gave different percentages.

Based on the county’s figures as reported, the median homestead ($517,911) will pay $744.98 in county tax, up from $682.10. That is $62.88 more, mostly because that home’s taxable value rose, not because of the small rate change. The vote was 4–1 on Sept. 14, 2026. County Judge Chris Hill cast the only no vote and said, “after 33 years of not raising the tax rate, this will be the first year to actually raise the tax rate” (Murphy Monitor; KERA News, 2026). The 33-year figure is the judge’s statement. The county’s published history table only goes back to 2006.

San Antonio: the first city increase since 1992

On Sept. 17, 2026, the San Antonio City Council voted 7–4 for a budget with the city’s first property tax rate increase in more than three decades. Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and council members Marc Whyte, Misty Spears and Marina Alderete Gavito voted no (San Antonio Report; KSAT, 2026). The city was dealing with a reported two-year deficit of about $158 million. “We punted,” the mayor said.

Unverified: we have not yet seen the city’s adopted-rate ordinance. Press accounts disagree on the dollar impact for an average homestead ($35 vs. $49 a year), so we are not reporting either figure. San Antonio homeowners should check the adopted rate on the Bexar Appraisal District or Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector site once it posts.

“Why couldn’t I vote on it?”

At the Harris County hearing, a resident asked commissioners: “If I am expected to pay the increase, why couldn’t I vote on it?” (KPRC/Click2Houston, 2026). The law answers that question.

Every taxing unit calculates two benchmark rates each summer on a worksheet prescribed by the Comptroller:

No-new-revenue rate: the rate that would bring in the same total tax from the same properties as last year. If your value didn’t change and your government adopts this rate, your bill for that entity stays about the same.
Voter-approval rate: in the Comptroller’s words, “the highest tax rate that a taxing unit may adopt without holding an election.” For most cities and counties, the operations part equals the no-new-revenue operations rate multiplied by 1.035, which allows 3.5% more operating revenue from existing property, plus the rate needed to pay debt. “Special taxing units” use 1.08 instead (Comptroller Form 50-856, 2026 edition).

A city or county that adopts a rate above its voter-approval rate must hold an automatic election to ratify it (Tax Code § 26.07). That rule, and the 3.5% multiplier, date to the 2019 reform law, SB 2. Anything between the no-new-revenue rate and the voter-approval rate needs only a vote of the governing body, after the public notices and hearing required by truth-in-taxation law. All three governments in this article adopted rates in that range.

Two things can make a local government’s ceiling higher than people expect:

Falling or flat values. As Harris County shows, when existing property loses value, both benchmark rates go up.
Unused increment. A unit that stayed below its voter-approval rate in the previous three years can carry some of that unused room forward. Collin County’s 2026 ceiling includes 0.3612 cents of it, according to its worksheet. Harris County’s budget says it had none available for 2026.

This is different from school districts, which need a voter-approval tax rate election (VATRE) to go above their own, differently calculated ceiling. It is also different from the SB 1851 audit law, which can hold a non-compliant city to its no-new-revenue rate.

What to do now

Check your bill when it arrives. Tax bills generally go out in October and are due by Jan. 31 (Texas Comptroller). Each taxing unit appears on its own line, so you can see exactly which rate went up.
Look at your county’s rates. See the 2025 adopted rates for Harris, Collin and Bexar counties, then compare them with the 2026 rate on your bill.
Read your local “Notice About 2026 Tax Rates” and the calculation worksheet. Your county tax assessor-collector posts them. Collin’s are on its tax assessor page.
Remember next year. Rate adoption runs August through September. The deadline is Sept. 30 or the 60th day after the certified roll arrives, whichever is later (Tax Code § 26.05). The public hearing is where your comments count. Our guide to how the summer rate votes work explains how to take part.
The value side matters as much as the rate. In Collin County, the median homestead bill rose far more than the rate did. See our guide to your notice of appraised value and protest rights.

What we could not verify

Harris County’s adopted rates come from press reports (FOX 26 Houston, Community Impact, KPRC). They match the county’s published voter-approval and proposed rates, but we did not obtain the signed adoption order. Reports also differ on the vote count and on Judge Hidalgo’s vote.
Descriptions of Harris County’s increase as the “largest in county history” come from press reports. The county’s published table covers 2017–2025.
San Antonio’s adopted rate and the per-home cost are not confirmed against the city’s ordinance.
Collin County’s “33 years” figure comes from the county judge. The county’s published rate history begins in 2006.

Sources

How to Protest Your Taxes → Find Your County

Texas Property Tax Rate Increases Voters Never Approved