Collin College is asking voters to approve a $600 million bond on the Nov. 3 ballot, and today, Oct. 5, is the last day to register to vote in that election. The Collin College bond is a single measure, Proposition A, that would pay for workforce, career and technical, and academic buildings across the college’s service area, including new campuses in Anna and Royse City.
The Collin County Community College District board called the election unanimously at its Aug. 7 meeting. Like every Texas bond measure, the ballot will carry the phrase “THIS IS A TAX INCREASE.” The college says it does not expect its tax rate to change if the bond passes. The state-required voter information document attached to the election order still puts a number on the potential cost, and that figure is worth reading before early voting opens Oct. 19.
What the Collin College bond would build
According to the college’s August announcement, Proposition A covers workforce and academic expansions at the McKinney Campus, the Technical Campus in Allen, the Frisco Campus, the Wylie Campus, the Farmersville Campus and the Courtyard Center in Plano. It would also fund a new Aviation Academy in McKinney and new campuses in Anna and Royse City.
The college’s Bond 2026 page sorts the work into two phases of its Destination 2030 master plan:
- Phase II: a McKinney Campus workforce building, a Wylie Campus academic building, a Plano Courtyard Center workforce expansion, an Allen Technical Campus workforce and academic building, a Celina Campus workforce building and the McKinney Aviation Academy
- Phase III: a Frisco Campus health sciences expansion, a Wylie Campus workforce expansion, a new Anna campus, a Farmersville Campus workforce building and a new Royse City campus
The bond page says the package would expand more than 20 career and technical education pathways. The college ties the request to growth, saying credit enrollment rose more than 31% over the past decade. A master plan steering committee met four times over two months before the board voted, according to the announcement. Collin County voters last approved a $600 million Collin College bond in 2017.
The numbers in the voter information document
The election order, signed by board chair Jay Saad and posted with Collin County’s election notices, includes a voter information document. It lists these figures as of the date the election was ordered:
- Principal of the new bonds: $600,000,000
- Estimated interest, presuming a 5.00% rate: $378,192,750
- Estimated total to repay the new bonds on time and in full, amortized over 20 years: $978,192,750
- Outstanding principal on existing college debt: $438,250,000, plus $132,004,735 in estimated interest
- Current debt service tax rate: $0.00622 per $100 of taxable value
- Estimated maximum annual increase in taxes on a residence homestead appraised at $100,000: $20.18
That last line is the one most taxpayers skip. Applied to the college’s 2026 average homestead taxable value of $462,432, the $20.18 figure works out to roughly $93 a year if the maximum were reached. That is a Never Late News calculation, not a college estimate.
Interest is a big share of the cost. At the assumed rate, the college would pay about 63 cents in interest for every dollar it borrows under Proposition A, based on the document’s own totals.
Why the college says its rate will not rise
Collin College’s bond page says its tax rate has stayed at $0.08122 per $100 since 2018 and is anticipated to stay at the same rate if the 2026 bond passes. The August announcement says the college does not anticipate an increase in the tax rate, based on current financial projections.
Those two documents answer different questions. The voter information document is a state-required estimate of the most the new debt could add to a homestead bill, and it says so plainly: the $20.18 figure “makes conservative assumptions” about the amortization period and the interest rate. It also assumes appraised values in the district rise 4% for one year and then stay flat for the life of the bonds. The college’s flat-rate projection rests on its own financial forecasts, which are not spelled out in the documents Never Late News reviewed. A fair reading is that $20.18 per $100,000 is the disclosed ceiling, built on cautious assumptions, and a flat rate is the college’s plan.
For context, the college’s 2026 notice of public hearing on its tax rate listed a proposed rate of $0.081220, a no-new-revenue rate of $0.080693 and a voter-approval rate of $0.088595. The tax on the average homestead was projected at $375.59, up $7.11 from $368.48 in 2025, because values rose even with the rate held flat.
Where it sits on a crowded Collin County ballot
The college measure is one of several money questions in front of Collin County voters. McKinney ISD is asking for a tax ratification election and a $500 million bond, which Never Late News broke down in its McKinney ISD VATRE and bond explainer. Collin County itself has four bond propositions on the ballot. For the county’s current tax line, see our report on Collin County keeping its $0.149343 rate on a $599.2 million budget. Plano homeowners can compare the college’s slice of their bill with the school district’s in our story on Plano ISD’s $1.03275 tax rate and operating shortfall.
The college rate is a small line on most bills. At about 8 cents per $100, it is a fraction of a typical school district rate. That is why the debt total deserves as much attention as the rate headline. An estimated $978 million in principal and interest is real money, even spread across a large and growing tax base.
Key dates for voters
- Oct. 5: last day to register to vote
- Oct. 19 through Oct. 30: early voting
- Oct. 23: applications for a ballot by mail must be received by close of business
- Nov. 3: Election Day, polls open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
How Never Late News reported this
This story is based on the Collin County Community College District’s notice of bond election and election order, adopted Aug. 7, 2026, and signed by board chair Jay Saad, including the attached voter information document with the principal, estimated interest, outstanding debt, current debt service rate and the $20.18 homestead estimate (election notice posted by Collin County). The project list, enrollment figure and flat-rate expectation come from the college’s bond election announcement and its Bond 2026 page. Tax rate and average homestead figures come from the college’s 2026 notice of public hearing on tax increase. The roughly $93 annual figure and the interest-per-dollar comparison are Never Late News calculations from those documents. No interviews were conducted for this report. To report an error, email editor@neverlatenews.com.