The no-new-revenue rate, explained
ExplainerTexas truth-in-taxation in plain terms: the no-new-revenue rate, the voter-approval rate, the de minimis rate for small cities, and how to read Aledo's, Aledo ISD's and Parker County's numbers.
What is the no-new-revenue rate?
The rate that would raise the same total property tax as last year from the properties taxed in both years. If values rose, the no-new-revenue rate falls; a unit that adopts a rate above it collects more revenue from existing property even when the rate number went down.
What is the voter-approval rate?
The highest rate a taxing unit can adopt without holding an election. For cities and counties it allows 3.5% growth in maintenance-and-operations revenue over the no-new-revenue level plus the debt rate; school districts use a state formula built on compressed rates.
What is the de minimis rate?
A rate cities with fewer than 30,000 people may adopt without an automatic election even when it is above the voter-approval rate, calculated so the extra revenue is no more than $500,000. Aledo qualifies by population.
Where do Aledo's numbers come from?
Each unit calculates its rates on the Comptroller's worksheets from the appraisal district's certified values, publishes them, and adopts a rate after notice and, where required, a hearing. The Ledger's tax-rate pages show each year's adopted, no-new-revenue and voter-approval rates.
How the two rates are used
Every August the appraisal district certifies values, the units calculate the two benchmark rates on the Comptroller's worksheets, and each governing body adopts a rate after posting notice. A rate at or below the no-new-revenue rate raises the same money from the same properties; a rate above it raises more, and the required motion language says so, which is why a school board in 2019 adopted a ten-cent cut under a motion worded as a 4.04 percent increase. A rate above the voter-approval rate sends the question to voters, except for small cities using the de minimis rate.
Two things the rates leave out: new construction, which is added to the roll after the no-new-revenue calculation, so growth raises revenue without raising the rate; and your own appraisal, which sets your share of the levy whatever the rate does.
Aledo's units
The Ledger keeps each unit's adopted, no-new-revenue and voter-approval rates by year on the tax-rate pages, and the votes that set them in the meeting record. The Comptroller's truth-in-taxation site explains the worksheets.