Collin County voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to borrow $475 million for non-tolled roads and bridges, the largest of four county bond questions on the ballot. The county’s voter information document estimates the Collin County road bond alone would add about $1.12 a year to the tax bill on a $100,000 homestead. If all four propositions pass, the same document puts the added cost at about $9.51.
The gap between those two numbers is the most useful thing a voter can know about this package, and it is easy to miss.
Four propositions, $817.5 million
Commissioners Court adopted the election order on Aug. 10. Each proposition carries the phrase “THIS IS A TAX INCREASE” on the ballot.
- Proposition A, $296.5 million: court facilities, adult detention facilities, medical and mental health detention facilities, and adult probation facilities
- Proposition B, $475 million: non-tolled roads and bridges in Collin County, including land and rights-of-way
- Proposition C, $6 million: park and open space land, including joint county-city projects
- Proposition D, $40 million: a new county elections and storage facility for election offices, training and storage, county records and historical documents
Roads make up about 58% of the total.
What the Collin County road bond would pay for
The ballot language covers designing, building, renovating, extending, expanding and maintaining non-tolled roads and bridges within the county, plus buying land and right-of-way. It does not name specific projects.
That was deliberate. Community Impact reported in August that commissioners kept the project list broad. According to that report, county engineering director Clarence Daughtery named examples of major work the money could support: a Dallas North Tollway service road, an Outer Loop service road west of US 75, and a service road from Farmersville to Rockwall County.
The non-tolled wording matters. The tollway itself is run by the North Texas Tollway Authority on toll revenue, as Never Late News laid out in its look at the NTTA’s FY2026 budget. County bond money would go to the free roads around and alongside those corridors.
When the county would borrow
The voter information document lays out a five-year issuance plan for the road bonds:
- 2027: $25 million
- 2028: $112.5 million
- 2029: $112.5 million
- 2030: $112.5 million
- 2031: $112.5 million
At an assumed 5% interest rate, the county estimates $282,458,083 in interest on the road bonds, for a total repayment of $757,458,083. That is roughly 59 cents of interest for every dollar borrowed.
The tax math, read carefully
Collin County’s total tax rate is $0.149343 per $100 of value, made up of $0.107452 for operations and $0.041891 for debt service. The Collin County road bond and the other three questions only affect the debt service piece. Never Late News covered the county’s decision to hold that overall rate in its story on Collin County keeping $0.149343 for a 33rd year.
Here is what the voter information document projects:
- Proposition B alone: the debt rate peaks at about $0.043011 in fiscal 2032, an increase of about $0.00112, or roughly $1.12 a year per $100,000 of homestead value
- Propositions A, C or D alone: no estimated increase, according to the document
- All four together: the debt rate rises to about $0.051402, an increase of $0.009511 over the current rate, or about $9.51 per $100,000
The document models each proposition on its own against the same existing room in the debt rate. That is why the individual estimates add up to only $1.12 while the combined estimate is $9.51. A voter who supports all four should plan on the combined figure.
For a homestead appraised at $400,000, those projections work out to about $4.48 a year for the road bond alone and about $38.04 a year for the full package at the peak. That is a Never Late News calculation. The county notes it applied no homestead or other exemptions in its estimates, so actual bills on homesteads would be somewhat lower.
The projections rest on stated assumptions: a 5% interest rate, a 100% collection rate and 3% annual growth in taxable value starting in fiscal 2028. The county’s freeze-adjusted taxable value was about $261.9 billion for fiscal 2026 and $271.3 billion for fiscal 2027.
One number that shifted
Community Impact’s Aug. 12 report cited a projected maximum debt rate of 4.95 cents in 2031. The voter information document posted for the election projects the full package peaking at about 5.14 cents. The difference is small, about a fifth of a cent, but the posted document is the disclosure the county is required to publish, so it is the figure Never Late News uses here.
The county also carries existing debt. As of Aug. 10, outstanding principal was $1,133,210,000, with an estimated $506,331,862 in remaining interest.
How this compares nearby
Fort Worth took a similar path this year with a $511.5 million streets bond inside a static debt rate. Collin County’s road question is a little smaller, and unlike a static-rate pitch, the county’s own documents say the combined package would raise the debt rate.
Key dates
- Oct. 5: last day to register to vote
- Oct. 19 through Oct. 30: early voting
- Nov. 3: Election Day, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
How Never Late News reported this
This guide is based on Collin County’s voter information documents for the four bond propositions, which provide the ballot language, principal and interest estimates, the road bond issuance schedule, the individual and combined tax impacts, the assumptions and the outstanding debt as of Aug. 10, 2026. The Aug. 10 adoption date and the county’s current tax rate split come from the county’s notice of election and Commissioners Court order. Possible road projects, the decision to keep the list broad and the 4.95-cent figure come from Community Impact’s Aug. 12 report. The 58% share, the interest-per-dollar figure and the $400,000 homestead example are Never Late News calculations from the county’s documents. No interviews were conducted for this report. To report an error, email editor@neverlatenews.com.