Even though the values of many homes in The Woodlands are going up, the tax rates and -- in most cases -- the taxes paid are going down.
"Even if your value goes up, you'll see you'll pay less taxes and your tax rate will be lower. So it's a combination of both," The Woodlands Township Chairman Bruce Tough said.
That's because The Woodlands lowered its effective property tax rate, nullifying the extra tax on property whose value went up.
"I think that's great. I think that's awesome," homeowner Mario Valdez said. "Especially right now. I just recently bought a house."
How did they do it? Well, they tell us it's not magic. It's a function of the economy.
"Here, particularly, sales tax is doing extremely well," said Gil Staley with The Woodlands Economic Development. "And so when bring jobs here, you bring a tremendous daytime population. And for a suburban market that's a bit unusual."
In fact sales tax revenue went up more than 21 percent and the hotel taxes collected jumped 10 percent. Those increases offset what would be otherwise needed money from property tax. So the businesses that set up shop and the visitors who spend money in The Woodlands are helping lower the burden for the 105,000 who call the community home.
We worked on this story with help from our friends at Houston Community Newspapers. You can read more in The Courier of Montgomery County.
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