Consolidated Tax Rate in Rockwall Drops Below $2.00 Per $100 of Assessed Valuation
ROCKWALL, TEXAS – Recent decisions by the Rockwall Independent School District, Rockwall County and the City of Rockwall have combined to achieve a rare milestone that will benefit Rockwall residents and businesses. All three taxing entities elected to decrease their property tax rates for Tax Year 2020, resulting in a consolidated tax rate of $1.9931 per $100 of assessed valuation.
“Over the last six years, we’ve had consistent reductions in our tax rate to the tune of over 20 percent in the last six years,” said Rockwall County Commissioner Lee Gilbert. “There’s a study that has been done over total tax rates in counties in Texas. When you average our county’s city taxes, school taxes and county taxes, we have the fifth lowest tax rate out of all 254 counties in Texas”
Indeed, a tax rate below $2.00 is rare in Texas – a state that is generally known to be more reliant upon property taxes due to not having a state income tax. All property owners in the City of Rockwall will benefit from the $1.9931 rate, as the community also benefits from no special taxing districts related to community colleges, hospitals, or utilities – despite having these services available for residents.
“This year has called for unprecedented measures in so many areas of life,” said Rockwall Mayor Jim Pruitt. “As a City Council, we have taken great strides to ensure we don’t add to the financial load of our residents during these challenging times. We are happy to adopt a balanced budget that continues to provide the high-quality services our residents enjoy, without burdening our taxpayers in doing so.”
The tax rate reductions began in August when the Rockwall Independent School District dropped their tax rate from $1.35 to $1.31. This was followed in September by a reduction from the City, from $0.3879 to $0.37, and the County, from $0.325 to $0.3131. In total, the 6.98-cent drop represents a 3.38% decrease from the previous consolidated tax rate.
“We are fortunate to have strong elected officials that care about keeping costs low, while delivering top notch services like education and public safety,” said Rockwall Economic Development President Phil Wagner. “At the REDC, we are going to continue to work hard to bring in industry that helps spread out the tax burden for existing residents and businesses in Rockwall. Hopefully, we’ll see even more reductions in future years.”
The mission of the Rockwall Economic Development Corporation is to broaden and diversify the tax base through new business attraction, land acquisition and development, progressive infrastructure, corporate business expansion, and job creation.
Austin Wells of the Blue Ribbon News contributed to this release.
