Megan Navarro
SAN MARCOS — Homeowners in Hays County will receive their 2025 tax statements later than normal, due to certain items listed on the Nov. 4 election ballot.
One of those items is a constitutional amendment, Proposition 13, which is related to Senate Bill (SB) 4. If approved, this would increase the amount of the exemption of residence homesteads from ad valorem tax by a school district from $100,000 to $140,000.
“The biggest portion of your property taxes does come from the school districts,” explained Hays County Tax Assessor-Collector Jennifer Escobar. “It makes up over 50% of the tax that you pay — the 50% of the bill that everybody gets in property taxes — the homestead exemption will cause the property tax portion to be lowered.”
SB 23 was later paired with another statewide constitutional amendment, listed as Proposition 11 on the ballot. This is asking voters to decide whether to increase the additional homestead exemption for seniors or disabled people from $10,000 to $60,000, Escobar explained.
The last item that is impacting when the tax statements are being sent out is Hays CISD’s Voter-Approval Tax Rate election, also known as a rollback, where the item is asking voters to consider ratifying the ad valorem tax rate of $1.2746 per $100 valuation for the current year. According to the ballot language, this rate will result in an increase of 15.39% in maintenance and operations for the district, as compared to the previous year, which is an additional $26,238,548.
“It affects homeowners who pay Hays CISD school district taxes, which is about half of the parcels in the county. So, it's a big deal and it affects a lot of Hays County,” Escobar said. “A rollback happens when a school district decides to adopt a tax rate higher than its voter-approval tax rate, so it has to call for a tax ratification election to let the voters approve or reject the increase of this tax.”
The Hays County Tax Office decided to mail out 2025 tax statements following the November election because of the items affecting the taxes that homeowners have to pay.
Escobar said that she has multiple options on when to send out the statements. She could have already sent them Oct. 1 — the earliest they can be sent — as if none of the propositions have passed, but if one or all passed following the election, then the tax office would have to mail out corrected statements and issue refunds.
Similarly, she could send them now as if everything passed, but, if one or all did not pass, then corrected statements would need to be sent and people would have balances that they would need to pay, since the lowered tax items did not get approved.
“I went ahead and I decided to wait until after the election and just send one bill one time, the right way. This will just avoid confusion. It'll avoid costly reprints and postage for the county and it'll avoid us having to send unnecessary refunds, which stamps and postage and all that other good stuff that goes with that,” she said. “It just made the most sense and I think it would cause people the less amount of grief.”
Tax statements are expected to be sent out around the third or fourth week of November to allow for canvassing of election votes to occur.
Property taxes are due on or before Jan. 31, 2026. If taxes are left unpaid Feb. 1, they will be considered delinquent and penalties and interest will start accruing. However, Escobar said that quarterly payment installment plans are offered for disabled, disabled veterans, surviving spouses of a disabled veteran or at least 65 years of age and qualify for a homestead exemption.
More information about Hays County taxes can be found at www.tax.co.hays.tx.us.
