New Georgetown city budget lowers property tax rate, but rising values may mean higher bills

GEORGETOWN, Texas - The new city budget for Georgetown lowers the city's property tax rate, but due to increasing property values, homeowners could still see an increase to their bill.

What we know:

The Georgetown City Council adopted its $1.3 billion Fiscal Year 2026 budget on Sept. 9. 

The adopted budget lowers the city property tax rate to 35.3 cents per $100 valuation, down from 36.5 cents per $100 valuation. It is also just .01 cents below the rate that would trigger voter approval per state law.

The city says this rate is the lowest of all cities in the Austin area with a population greater than 20,000 people. However, despite the lower rate, increasing property values means the average homeowner can expect to see an increase of about $14 for the year.'

Georgetown residents and utility customers can also expect the following rate increases:

• Water/wastewater rates: 9 percent water and 12 percent wastewater rate increase for all customer types, or a total monthly increase of about $6.90 for a residential customer using 10,000 gallons and $6.50 for wastewater
• Electric rates: 2 percent increase, or $2.40 a month for residential customers and $2.80 a month for small commercial customers.
• Solid waste rates: 4.5 percent, or $1 per month, increase for residential customers and a 9.5 percent, or $3.65 per month, increase for commercial

Read the proposed budget here. The city says the adopted budget book will be available online later this year.

What's in the budget?

Dig deeper:

The FY26 adopted budget is about $481 million more than the current fiscal year's adopted budget of $881 million.

The city says this is primarily due to new capital projects, which account for about $703.2 million of the $1.3 billion total. Some of those projects include:

$8.716 million 

• Purchasing, replacing new vehicles for Electric Utility
• Replacing public safety vehicles for police, fire and EMS

$64.294 million

• Designing a new customer service center and fire station
• Designing for the main library renovation and potential expansion
• Adding a restroom to the Parks and Recreation shop building
• Renovating and expanding the Georgetown Recreation Center
• New construction related to the YMCA partnership passed in the 2023 bond election

$4.668 million

• Improvements to Blue Hole Park and Chautauqua Park and to medium priority parks
• Replacing park capital equipment
• Building a trail connection from the Bluffview trailhead to the South San Gabriel regional trail in Lyndoch Park
• New construction on Berry Creek Trail West Phase 1

$32.000 million

• Improvements to traffic signals/intersections
• Funding for various priority sidewalk projects
• Allocations for intersections, bike lanes, and sidewalks
• Safety and mobility improvements along RM 2243 (Leander Road)
• Future road bond authorization for intersection improvements
• Improvements to FM 971 (Weir Road) between Gann Street and SH 130
• Improvements to Memorial Drive between River Chase Boulevard and Wolf Lakes Drive

$12.180 million

• Improvements to Austin Avenue
• Making a roundabout at San Gabriel Village Boulevard and Austin Avenue
• Construction on Wolf Ranch Parkway

$740,000 

• Replacing aging air traffic control tower equipment
• Replacing roof for Cutter North Hangar
• Extending the displaced threshold of Runway 18/36
• Replacement and upgrades to fuel FMU self-serve pump

$56.422 million

• "Make ready" engineering and construction related costs for customer-driven pole attachments
• Customer growth-driven projects include residential, commercial, and industrial
• Developing and constructing of new substation and transformer additions by LCRA
• System improvements to improve overall reliability and capacity and convert all system voltage and certain facilities from OH to UG
• Planned electric pole replacements, including replacing outdated and/or damaged hardware

$1.350 million

• Drainage improvements to 1401 Pine Street, 907 N. Myrtle Street, Pine Street and Hogg Street, and Randolph Road
• Implementing initial curb and gutter repairs, adding an initial storm drainage CCTV program

$297.797 million

• New and replacement wastewater vehicles
• Completing construction of Berry Creek Interceptor, plus spur connection to Berry Creek Highlands near Shell Road
• Replacing wastewater main along Church Street for about 1,000 feet
• Additional funding due to an increase in the estimated construction cost for the Plant Rehab, New Lift Station and Gravity line
• 18" to 36" expansion parallel to existing 21" line to serve expanding service area north of Lake Georgetown
• Designing and constructing the Northlands Life Station
• Improving the Dove Springs wastewater treatment plant
• Repair of system flaws discovered as a result of EARZ mandated testing
• Upgrades to the Lift Station, including increased funding for a full rehab of the Wolf Ranch Lift Station
• Designing and constructing first phase of the Northlands and Three Forks wastewater treatment plant
• Install the third pump and associated electrical components for firm pumping capacity at the Saddle Creek Lift Station
• Improvements to the San Gabriel wastewater treatment plant's irrigation/reuse system
• Installation of approximately 3700 linear feet of 8" line and 3500 linear feet of 12" line and the decommission of the Westinghouse and Midway Lift Stations

$215.079 million

• New and replacement water vehicles
• Improvements to Cedar Hollow waterline, Williams Drive waterline, Ronald Reagan to Braun waterline, miscellaneous waterlines throughout the city
• Install a permanent chemical feed system at the Lake Water Treatment Plant to mitigate the infestation of zebra mussels
• Water relocations for CR 201 widening project, DB Wood Road widening project, Leander Road widening project, Seward Junction North Loop
• Construction of a 16" master planned water line along Southwest Bypass from Leander EST to South Austin Ave
• Water meter replacements
• Ongoing maintenance and rehabilitation of existing steel water tanks including metal point repairs and reapplication of coatings

$7 million

• Annual maintenance for high performance pavement seal
• Annual maintenance for high performance streets

$292,000

• Purchases of capital tools for T&D department
• Rehabbing and upgrades for electric fleet

$1.926 million

• Replacing public safety mobile and portable radios and repairing towers

The city also highlighted other parts of the adopted budget, including:

• 70 positions in key areas such as public safety, water, and electric, including 21 new positions in police and fire
• Average merit pay of 3 percent and conducting additional market reviews for City positions to address employee recruitment and retention
• Increasing costs for nonresident use of parks, recreation, and library services
• Maintaining essential services while scaling back on offerings with limited impact or use, including closing an underutilized pool and reducing mowing and landscape maintenance frequency in winter
• Increases in water department staffing, capital improvement projects, including preliminary design for new fire stations, transportation improvements, public safety equipment, and parks improvements

Some factors affecting the budget include marginal growth in sales tax and property tax, commitment to infrastructure expansion, and maintaining service levels with a growing community, says the city.

Georgetown