IMPORTANT: Your local tax amounts are not set by the Appraisal District nor the Texas Legislature. Your property tax burden is decided by your locally elected officials (school trustees, city council, county commissioners, ETC.) and all questions concerning your taxes should be directed to those officials.

The 86th Texas Legislature modified the manner in which the voter-approval tax rate is calculated to limit the rate of growth of property taxes in the state.

Truth-in-taxation is a concept embodied in the Texas Constitution that requires local taxing units to make taxpayers aware of tax rate proposals and to afford taxpayers the opportunity to roll back or limit tax increases. Property owners have the right to know about increases in their properties’ appraised value and to be notified of the estimated taxes that could result from the new value.

Creating a budget and adopting a property tax rate to support that budget are major functions of a taxing unit’s governing body. This is accomplished by following truth-in-taxation requirements to ensure the public is informed of any increases. The type of taxing unit determines its applicable truth-in-taxation requirements.

The bell.countytaxrates website provides information concerning proposed property taxes that may be imposed on properties by local taxing units, the dates and locations of public hearings concerning budgets and tax rate adoption as well as other important information.