To begin, we can observe that the city\u2019s total tax levy\u2014which may be understood as: \u201cThe sum of the maintenance and operation and debt service levies generated by applying a [governmental entity\u2019s] adopted tax rates to its locally assessed valuation of property for the current tax year<\/a>\u201d\u2014experienced robust growth over the last decade. In fact, from 2015 to 2024, the city\u2019s total tax levy rose from $139.6 million to $230.3 million, equating to a 65% increase.<\/p>\n Now, on its own, this percentage change does not provide enough context to discern whether it was a reasonable or unreasonable rate of growth. For that, we must compare the decade-long growth in tax levies (+65%) with another value of similar significance, like population. By comparing these two metrics, it is possible to gain greater insight into the situation\u2019s fairness.<\/p>\n So here\u2019s what the data shows: In 2015, the number of city residents totaled 273,600. By 2024, that figure grew to 294,152, resulting in a 8% population change for the time period.<\/p>\n Thus, on the one hand, the city\u2019s main revenue source grew by 65% over the last 10 years. On the other hand, its population increased by just 8%.<\/p>\n This dynamic raises a few interesting questions, but chief among them is this\u2014what, if anything, have Plano\u2019s elected officials done to contain or contribute to this disparity?<\/p>\n To explore this question, let\u2019s consider how the city\u2019s total tax rate and taxable values have changed. For clarification purposes, the term total tax rates refers to the sum of: \u201ca rate for debt service payments\u2014often called the \u2018I&S rate\u2019 or interest and sinking fund rate\u2014and a rate for day-to-day maintenance and operations\u2014the \u2018M&O rate.\u2019<\/a>\u201d The term taxable values can be understood as: \u201c[t]he property value you pay taxes on.<\/a>\u201d In this case, taxable values apply on a community-wide basis, rather than on an individual level.<\/p>\n From 2015 to 2024, the city reduced its total tax rate by 14.5%. Simultaneously, total taxable values grew by 99.2%. Hence, rates declined modestly while at the same time that property values surged.<\/p>\n While it is true that city officials do not have control over property values (mostly<\/a>), it is also true that \u201c[l]ocal governments set tax rates<\/a>.\u201d This means that city officials have the discretion to adopt higher or lower tax rates to adjust for property value growth or decline. The tax rate decision reached by these local elected officials every year has a direct and obvious impact on your property tax bill.<\/p>\n Ideally, an \u201cinverse relationship<\/a>\u201d exists between rates and values, meaning that as one goes up, the other should come down in relatively similar proportion. In this case, the data shows that Plano\u2019s total tax rate declined modestly over the prior decade, but those reductions were overshadowed by a much greater growth in taxable values. As a result, the city\u2019s tax levy increased substantially more than population growth, which offers some partial insight into Plano\u2019s property tax woes.<\/p>\n Moving forward, city leaders would be wise to consider a different approach to property taxes. Namely, officials ought to limit levy growth to population growth, adopt the no-new-revenue (NNR) tax rate<\/a> or a rate below the NNR, and consider other good government reforms<\/a> to ease the burden of government on everyday Texans.<\/p>\n Changes like these are needed, both to help families cope with today\u2019s cost-of-living crisis as well as to better discipline the growth of government, which the data shows is warranted.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Plano-Tax-Levy-Table-1-900x527.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Does history suggest that property taxes are too high in the city of Plano? And, if so, have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":["post-362010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}