tax bills<\/a> will still be calculated Oct. 1 using the tentative higher rates since they were adopted by the local governments pending voter approval. But residents may get unwarranted sticker shock if they pay online before the election. If any of the measures fail, taxpayers will get an automatic refund in November, Ames said.\u00a0<\/p>\nHomeless aid<\/p>\n
Dallas County\u2019s tax rate will increase for the first time in 16 years no matter the outcome of its ballot measure. How much it goes up depends on voters.<\/p>\n
The Commissioners Court last month voted 3-2 to ask voters whether to increase the fiscal year 2027 tax rate to 24.86 cents per $100 of valuation, a 15% hike from this year\u2019s rate. The increase would generate $103 million to pay for housing, mental health and public safety efforts related to homelessness.<\/p>\n
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If voters shoot down the measure, the tax rate will be 22.46 cents per $100 of valuation, 4% higher than this year\u2019s rate and the largest increase possible without voter approval.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A general view of the Dallas County Commissioners Court, August 11, 2026.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
For a home worth $268,056, passing the homeless-services tax would mean a county tax bill of $667 \u2014 about $89 more than this year. If the measure fails, the bill would be about $602, or $25 more than this year.<\/p>\n
Commissioners John Wiley Price and Elba Garcia voted against the tax increase for homeless services. They also voted against the $904 million budget, which was built around the fallback rate that would take effect if the ballot measure fails and would still be a tax increase.<\/p>\n
County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins said the homelessness tax could not have been put on the ballot unless the base budget was adopted with the highest rate possible without voter approval.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe are already paying for the consequences of homelessness through emergency rooms, the jail and other costly systems,\u201d Jenkins said in a statement to The News. \u201cI believe voters should decide whether to invest in proven solutions that improve public safety, clean up encampments and give taxpayers a better return on what we\u2019re already spending.\u201d<\/p>\n
Price and Garcia worried about the burden on people at a time when many struggle with rising costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Right now, I see it, people\u00a0are asking for utility assistance, people are asking for basic help,”\u00a0Garcia told The News.<\/p>\n
City and school measures<\/p>\n
Mesquite\u00a0ISD voters will decide whether to approve a tax rate of $1.1762 per $100 of valuation, which would generate an additional $16 million to fund student programs, employee pay increases and campus security.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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If the measure fails, the Mesquite ISD rate will be $1.0862 per $100 of valuation, the highest it could adopt without voter approval. It would amount to a nearly 2% decrease from this year\u2019s rate because of school-district specific rules for calculating annual rate caps.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But in that scenario, the district will be on track for a deficit at the start of next school year, according to spokesperson Brenda Gonzalez.<\/p>\n
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CP Preparatory School student Ethan Johnson, 4, points to the final page of ‘Chimps Don’t Wear Glasses’ and questions instructor Erin Jones. Mesquite ISD is dipping deeper into early intervention by partnering with day cares to provide free pre-K for qualifying 3-year-olds. CP Preparatory School is one of seven pilot sites for the fall. (Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News)<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
University Park is asking voters to decide on a tax rate of about 22 cents per $100 of taxable value to generate $1.45 million to fund four police officers, two firefighters, enhanced public safety pension benefits and technology for residential parking districts.<\/p>\n
If it fails, the tax rate will be about 21 cents per $100 of valuation, a nearly 4% decrease from this year\u2019s rate because of how property values and other factors impacted the cap calculation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Ames, the tax assessor, said it may be a small percentage of people who pay their property taxes online this year before their rates are decided and they get a bill. He said mortgage companies typically pay property taxes in December for homeowners with escrow accounts while commercial property owners typically settle up in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Refunds will come immediately after the election if any outcome requires them, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody has on their calendar Oct. 1 to pay their taxes,\u201d Ames said. \u201cIf they do, that\u2019s my favorite person in the entire world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A person heads inside University Park United Methodist Church to cast their ballot on Election Day on Saturday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,89138],"class_list":["post-442878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-dallas-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442878","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=442878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}