Fort Bend County Judge Lower Tax Rate Letter

Today, I cast my vote to reduce the 2020 Fort Bend County tax rate to $0.424967 per $100 from 2019’s rate of $0.4447 per $100. I was proud to lead this effort, which continues a tradition of reducing taxes in Fort Bend County from $0.624 per $100 in 2000 to the significantly lower rate we voted on today.

While this is an important step to reduce your taxes, it is not enough to achieve full relief. The appraisals you received earlier this year, calculated by the Texas Comptroller’s Office and carried out by the independent Fort Bend County Appraisal District, are based on property values as of January 1, 2020, before the pandemic brought the economy to a crashing halt. As a longtime business owner and fellow taxpayer, I feel your concerns about this year’s property values. The power to revert property appraisals to their 2019 levels lies solely in the hands of our statewide elected officials like Governor Abbott and Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar. To advocate on your behalf, I successfully put forth a Commissioners Court resolution at Commissioners Court on April 21, 2020 (https://bit.ly/2DbeaMa) calling for a special session or relief to Texas taxpayers. Unfortunately, Governor Abbott indicated he would not call any kind of special session for tax relief, hamstringing the ability of our state legislators to act.

Further, the County tax rate only constitutes a small percentage of your overall taxes. Fort Bend County leads by example by finding ways to reduce our tax rate without compromising public services that our residents depend on, like EMS, law enforcement, road maintenance, and emergency management.

However, the bulk of the taxes you pay do not go to Fort Bend County. The bulk of your taxes go to your local school district, special districts such as MUDS & LIDS, cities, and other taxing entities that you live within. Each neighborhood in Fort Bend County has different taxes depending on where they are. I encourage you to do your research and analyze exactly where your tax dollars are going to demand that other taxing entities follow suit our example and lower their tax rates in recognition of the financial hardship families are going through right now.

To equip you with the tools you need to demand relief, we have set up a portal for residents to look at detailed tax rate information for all taxing units in this area: https://bit.ly/2CMOyp6.

We have set up this tool for YOU to make sure you know where your taxes are going.

Sincerely,

Fort Bend County Judge KP George