Grayson County set to hold its tax rate flat, but the average bill still rises

Grayson County commissioners are scheduled to vote Tuesday morning on keeping the county property tax rate where it stands, at 30.51 cents per $100 of value. Because taxable home values rose, the county's published hearing notice projects the average homestead bill climbing about $42 for the year, close to three and a half dollars a month.

The public hearing begins at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25, at the Grayson County Courthouse in Sherman. The posted agenda lists the hearing first, then separate votes to adopt the maintenance-and-operations rate, the debt rate, the total rate and a tax-rate resolution. The decision belongs to the Commissioners Court.

The rate does not move. The value beneath it does. The notice reports the average taxable homestead in the county gaining nearly 6 percent this year. If the court adopts the flat rate, the notice's own figures carry the average county bill from roughly $726 to roughly $768.

State law requires counties to publish two benchmark rates each year. The no-new-revenue rate would collect about the same money from the same property as last year. The voter-approval rate is the ceiling above which, under Texas Comptroller rules, the question generally goes to the voters. Grayson County's proposal falls below both, and the notice says the proposed rate is not a tax-rate increase for the 2026 tax year and does not require a voter-approval election.

Two county notices describe the money in different terms, and both stand on the record. The tax-rate notice projects the total levy on all property dropping about 3 percent from last year. The separate budget notice says the proposed fiscal 2027 budget would raise about $3.5 million more in total property taxes than the last one, an increase of 5.26 percent, with most of that tied to property newly added to the roll.

The rate notice also names the costs behind its no-new-revenue math. Indigent health care compensation is the largest at about $6 million, with state criminal-justice inmate costs and indigent defense compensation each near $1.8 million.

For a reader in Gainesville, the comparison closest to home is the county line. Cooke County adopted 33.55 cents per $100 for fiscal 2025-26, about three cents above what Grayson proposes. Cooke County's 2025 combined-rate sheet puts the city overlap total at $2.092079 per $100, with Gainesville ISD alone accounting for nearly half of it.

Grayson's court adopted the identical 30.51-cent rate a year ago, on Aug. 26, 2025, by a 5-0 vote. Neighboring counties keep their own calendars. Fannin County set a hearing and vote on a proposed rate of about 38.5 cents for Aug. 18, and Denton County scheduled its budget and tax-rate hearings for Sept. 22. Texas levies no state property tax; the Comptroller counts more than 4,796 local taxing units that do.