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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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Officials in Texas’ Harris County, home to Houston and more than 5 million residents, approved the highest property tax rate in modern history to help close a budget gap exceeding $180 million, a move likely to intensify affordability concerns for local homeowners.
With a 3-2 vote on Tuesday, commissioners in Harris County — the third-largest county in the country after Los Angeles County, California, and Cook County, Illinois — agreed to move forward a proposed increase of 7.6 percent for the upcoming fiscal year.
That would mean residents would pay 67 cents for every $100 in taxable property value, up from the current 62 cents.
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What to Know About the Property Tax Rate Hike
The unprecedented increase has been proposed as the county faces a more than $180 million fiscal deficit which officials say has been driven largely by law enforcement pay raises, rising healthcare costs, and fees paid to court-appointed attorneys representing defendants who cannot afford a lawyer.
These are the same challenges that many local governments across the nation are facing: rising public-safety costs, healthcare costs, and mandates that are growing faster than revenue. For Harris County, one of the largest local governments in America, these pressures are even more dramatic than most.
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“This allows us to continue the path that we’ve been on for the last six or seven years. Continue with our infrastructure expansion plans, our technology expansion, and upgrade,” Harris Health President and CEO Dr. Esmaeil Porsa told commissioners, as reported by Fox 26.
For residents, the budget shortfall is nothing new: the county has reported one for four consecutive years since 2023. But the property tax hike, if given final approval, will be something they have not had to deal with before — and a high price to pay to balance the county’s books.
Breaking Down The Voting Record
If finalized, the 7.6 percent property tax hike approved by commissioners would add $198 more in the coming year to what the average homeowner in the county currently pays, according to estimates by the Harris County Office of Management and Budget. It would generate a projected $15 million surplus for the county.
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The 3-2 vote that allowed the progress of the proposed tax increase struck down an amendment introduced by Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey, a Republican, that would have left the rate unchanged.
Democratic County Judge Lina Hidalgo was the only other member of the court, together with Ramsey, who voted in support of leaving the rate unchanged.
“We have been irresponsible with our spending. But the programs that I’ve been proud to support over my seven and a half years in office, I have never, never funded a program when I knew there was no money for it. I think that’s what’s truly fiscally responsible,” Hidalgo said in a statement reported by the Houston Chronicle:
Commissioner Adrian Garcia, a Democrat, had proposed a lower rate increase, but ultimately voted in support of the 67-cent rate on Tuesday.
Newsweek contacted County Judge Lina Hidalgo, Commissioners Adrian Garcia, Tom Ramsey, Lesley Briones and Rodney Ellis for comment by email on Wednesday morning.
County Officials And The Fight Over Property Taxes
The Harris County vote comes despite years of efforts by Texas lawmakers to rein in property taxes, something which several Republican-led states across the country have been trying to do since the end of the pandemic, with mixed results.
State leaders, including Governor Greg Abbott, have repeatedly made property tax relief a legislative priority, arguing that rising tax bills have become one of the biggest affordability concerns facing homeowners in a state that does not levy a personal income tax.
Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty
In recent years, Texas has approved multi-billion-dollar tax relief packages aimed at reducing school district taxes and increasing the homestead exemption, with supporters arguing the measures would help Texans stay in their homes amid rapid growth and rising property values.
Yet local governments across Texas, such as Harris County, have continued to face mounting financial pressures, often finding no other options to fix their budget shortfalls than to increase property taxes.
More Pressure on Harris County’s Homeowners
For many homeowners in Harris County, Tuesday's vote represents another potential addition to the growing cost of homeownership.
Residents in the Houston area have faced years of rising home prices, higher insurance costs and increasing tax bills.
As of July, the median sale price of a home in Houston was $359,720, according to Redfin data, compared to $250,000 in July 2019, before the pandemic homebuying frenzy. The median sale price of a home in Harris County was a similar $327,041, up from $286,000 five years earlier.
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Over the last ten years, and especially since the pandemic, property taxes have also skyrocketed as home values shot up. According to data mentioned by conservative advocacy group Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, the direct property tax burden in the Lone Star State has increased by $40.7 billion since 2015.
Meanwhile, homeowners insurance premiums surged 30 percent in Texas between 2019 and 2024 to an average of $2,983 per year, according to a report from Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research. Since then, they have continued growing: the average annual cost of homeowners insurance in Texas is $4,644 for a policy with $300,000 in dwelling coverage and a $1,000 deductible, according to data from Insurify.
What Happens Next
The rate increase is not final. A public hearing on the proposed property tax rate hike is scheduled for September 17 at 9 a.m.
Commissioners could still approve a lower property tax rate hike after the public hearing, but within a specific time frame: they have to do it before the court is required to finalize the county’s budget ahead of the start of the new fiscal year on October 1.
If given the green light after a public hearing on September 17 and a final vote, the property tax hike would be one of the largest in the county’s history, according to local news media.
Contact Newsweek editor on this story: Edward Pearcey.
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