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City News · Finance

Tax Rate Established by Operation of Law, Then Reopened by Mail

The deadline moved. The seconds did not arrive.

Hawk Cove, Texas, October 6, 2026. Sometimes the law does the work for you. At tonight’s special session the Council was told: “Council did not adopt the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget by September 30. Council also did not timely adopt a tax year 2026 ad valorem tax rate.” Under Tax Code section 26.05(c), the rate becomes the lower of the no-new-revenue rate, $0.794903, or last year’s, and “The lower rate is therefore 0.774139.”

The Council was also told the statute directs the governing body “to ratify the applicable rate before the fifth day after its establishment,” and that “That ratification deadline expired yesterday.” A motion to ratify the $0.774139 rate “established by operation of law” was made. Then: “we have no second / we cannot therefore vote.”

Then the mail came

On October 20 City Attorney Ronna L. Hodges told the Council the deadline had not passed after all. The City’s records “reflect receipt of its mailed certified appraisal roll from the county appraisal office on August 24th, 2026,” and 60 days from that is “October 23, 2026 as the date the city statutorily must adopt its tax rate.” The county office received the roll July 23. The City’s copy “actually bears an August 12th postage label” (meeting video). Twelve days in the mail is, we believe, a reasonable pace for a document traveling within Hunt County.

The Council also heard that the assessor’s office had not, as first reported, set the 2026 rate at zero: “their software required a zero entry to remove the city from combined statements” (meeting video).

Highlights

  • October 20: a motion on the $0.794903 rate drew “No second,” and “items C, D, E, and F are dropped from the agenda.”
  • A council member explained: “I can’t understand why we went from 0.77 to 0.79. So, I can’t second that.”
  • Mayor Darren Evans put the cost of 2025’s missed rate at “$112,000. That’s $112,000 we could have put in the roads.”
  • For 2025, the City Attorney reported that “the council did not pass a valid tax rate on September 10th September 16th or September 19th” (October 21, 2025, 0:03:10). The county lists the 2025 rate as $0.774139.

The new deadline is October 23, 2026. We will report the outcome when it reaches us, by whatever route.

Quotes from the October 6 and October 20, 2026 meetings are from our transcripts of the recordings, linked to the City’s meeting videos; times are not given because the recordings may not match the City’s upload. The video is the record. The rates and worksheets are on Finances.

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