Georgetown Prop A and Your Fall Tax Bill | GTown Buzz

Morning, Georgetown. 👋

A week into the school year, a week into The Junction, and somehow already deep into budget season. This issue is mostly about money, specifically three separate decisions about your tax bill that are all landing this fall and are easy to confuse with each other. I am going to untangle them for you in plain English, because nobody else is going to. Let's go.

If you have been half hearing about tax increases and cannot tell which is which, you are not alone. There are three separate things happening, run by two different governments, on three different timelines. Here they are.

1. Georgetown ISD Proposition A (you vote on this). The school board voted unanimously on Aug. 17 to put a tax rate increase on the November 3 ballot, where it will appear as Georgetown Independent School District Proposition A. It would raise the district rate 6 cents, from $1.0506 to $1.1106 per $100 of valuation. For the median homeowner with a homestead exemption, that is about $7.97 more per year. Residents 65 and over with a homestead exemption see no increase, since those bills are frozen.

Where the money goes: the district says all of it goes to pay. That means 3 percent raises for teachers and hourly staff and 2 percent for everyone else, which works out to roughly $2,300 more for a teacher, with starting salaries going from $57,000 to $59,000. If it passes, the district says it will pay staff retroactively back to August.

One number that will confuse people in the voting booth: the ballot will reference about $17.5 million, but roughly $9.1 million of that goes back to the state under recapture. The district keeps about $8.4 million. Both numbers are true. They are just measuring different things.

2. The city property tax rate (council decides this). Separate government, separate bill. City Manager David Morgan presented the FY27 rate and budget at an Aug. 11 workshop, and the Sun's read is that the rate rises but the average homestead bill stays roughly flat, because property values shifted. Council votes on adoption in September, with public hearings before that.

3. City water and wastewater rates (council decides this too). These passed a first reading back in July and still need a second vote. If adopted, they take effect with the new fiscal year on October 1.

The short version: you vote on the school one in November. The city ones get decided by council in the next few weeks, which means the only way to weigh in is to show up or email before they vote. Two very different kinds of participation, and it is worth knowing which is which.

We will keep tracking all three.

Something we missed? Hit reply. The tip line is always open.

It has been open a week. The food hall lineup, for anyone who has not made the trip yet: Sweet Lemon Kitchen (the Square favorite's third location), Dough Go Pizza, King's Chicken Wings in its first move outside Waco, Taconmaye, JABS Smashburger, and Shawarma Point. Plus three full bars and the speakeasy, The Nest.

I asked for crowd reports last week and got them. Keep them coming: what is worth the wait, what is not, and has anyone actually gotten on a pickleball court yet? Hit reply.

Some sad news for anyone who has spent a Georgetown summer evening with a cup of frozen custard. The Frozen Flamingo is closing this fall. Owner Faith Thomas has put the business up for sale, and it is operating on the assumption that this is its final summer, with a September close planned.

Frozen custard, shaved ice, frozen cocktails, and a long list of flavors and add ins. If it has been part of your family's summer routine, you have a few weeks left. Go get one. Take a picture. That is how small towns say thank you.

And if you have ever thought about owning a frozen dessert shop, it is technically on the market.

Know someone, or something, worth featuring in Georgetown? Hit reply and nominate them.

That $2 million the county sent out went to groups doing the unglamorous work: housing help, community services, the kind of programs that quietly keep people from falling through. It came through federal Housing and Urban Development grant money, and Williamson County's job was deciding where it would do the most good locally. Somebody sat in a room in August and made careful decisions about that. Good.

Last week I asked for Junction reports and teacher nominations, and both inboxes delivered. Thank you.

This week, a straightforward one: Proposition A is on your November ballot. Do you know how you are voting yet? Yes, no, or still figuring it out. Hit reply and tell me, and tell me what would help you decide. If enough of you want a plain English explainer before early voting, I will build one.

That's the Buzz. If this was useful, forward it to one neighbor. That is genuinely how this thing grows. And if someone sent it to you, you can subscribe free at gtownbuzz.com.

See you on the Square, Armand