Rockwall homeowners would pay about $31 more in city taxes next year under a proposed rate headed to the City Council on Thursday, Aug. 27.
The budget work session agenda puts the FY2027 tax rate at $.258007 per $100 of assessed value, up from the current $.2575. For the average homestead, now valued at $484,079, that works out to an estimated $1,248 annual city tax bill.
The proposed rate equals the no-new-revenue rate, meaning the city would collect the same total revenue from existing properties as the prior year. The $31 bump on the average home reflects rising property values, not a decision to exceed the no-new-revenue threshold.
No vote will happen Aug. 27.
The special meeting's action item is to set a date for the formal rate consideration and a public hearing on both the tax rate and the FY2027 budget.
$12 million for Village Drive Bridge
The same agenda includes a consent item authorizing City Manager Mary Smith to execute an Advanced Funding Agreement with TxDOT worth $12 million for construction of the Village Drive Bridge from Laguna Drive to Marina Drive.
The project would replace and widen the bridge from two lanes to four and replace the railroad crossing. The county's 2021 bond reprioritization pegged the total cost at $16.5 million. The city has already committed design money: council unanimously approved a $1 million interlocal agreement with Rockwall County in May and a $1.2 million engineering contract with Lamb-Star Engineering on Aug. 3.
FM 740 landscape contract
A second consent item would award $1,257,004.03 to Apex Landscape & Irrigation LLC for FM 740 landscape improvements, fully funded by a TxDOT reimbursable grant. No city dollars are involved.
Tax rate context
The proposed $.258007 rate continues a course correction that began with FY2026. After more than a decade of consecutive cuts that brought the rate from $.4853 in FY2016 down to $.247450 in FY2025, the council raised it to $.2575 last year.
At the August 2025 budget work session, City Manager Smith told council that the city had lowered the tax rate each year for a dozen years and that she did not believe it could "responsibly go any lower and continue to conduct the business of the city."
Mayor McCallum was blunter at that same session, calling previous councils' decisions to dip below the no-new-revenue rate "the most idiotic move over the last seven or eight years" and "really short-sighted, bad decisions."
How to weigh in
The Aug. 27 special meeting begins at 5 p.m. at City Hall Council Chambers, 385 S. Goliad St. Residents who want to speak during Open Forum must fill out a yellow "Request to Address City Council" form. The public hearing date for the tax rate and budget will be announced at that meeting; updates will be posted on the city's website.
