The Dallas College tax rate on this fall’s Dallas County property tax bills is the same 10.6575 cents per $100 of taxable value that homeowners paid last year. The average homestead will still pay about $23.79 more to the college, according to the district’s own tax notices, because taxable values rose while the rate stood still.
The college’s notices, set beside those from Tarrant County College and Collin College, show how much of that comes from appraisals rather than the rate.
What the college adopted
Dallas College trustees kept the Dallas College tax rate at $0.106575 per $100. State law also requires every taxing unit to publish two benchmark rates. For Dallas College this year, the no-new-revenue rate, which would raise the same money from the same properties as last year, was $0.100224. The voter-approval rate, the ceiling before an election is required, was $0.109048.
Because the adopted rate sits above the no-new-revenue rate, the college’s notice of adopted tax rate carries the state’s required warning that it “will raise more taxes for maintenance and operations than last year’s tax rate.” The notice says the rate is effectively raised by 5.03%, the amount by which the operating rate exceeds the no-new-revenue operating rate.
The same notice also says the increase on a $100,000 home is “approximately $0.00.” Both statements are true. The $0.00 figure measures the rate alone on a home whose value did not change. The 5.03% figure measures how much more revenue the unchanged rate pulls in from property that is worth more on paper this year.
When trustees proposed the rate, six voted for it: Paul Mayer, Cliff Boyd, Catalina E. Garcia, M.D., Philip J. Ritter, Monica Lira Bravo and Diana Flores. Kesha N. O’Reilly was listed as present and not voting. The public hearing was scheduled for Sept. 8 at the college offices, 1601 Botham Jean Blvd., and the adopted-rate page was last updated Sept. 10.
How the Dallas College tax rate hits a typical home
The college publishes two different “typical home” comparisons, and they tell slightly different stories.
- Average homestead: taxable value rose from $387,675 to $409,995, up 5.76%. The college tax on that home rose from $413.16 to $436.95, an increase of $23.79.
- Median homestead: taxable value rose from $259,385 to $268,056. The tax rose from $276.44 to $285.68, an increase of $9.24.
- At the no-new-revenue rate, the same median home would have paid $268.66. Never Late News calculated that keeping the old rate costs that household $17.02 more than the no-new-revenue option would have.
Half of homesteads are valued below the median, while the average is pulled up by pricier homes, so the median is often closer to a typical bill.
Where the extra $32.2 million comes from
The college’s total levy on all property is set to rise from $480,115,219 to $512,314,108, an increase of $32,198,889, or 6.71%. The budget hearing notice says $8,086,700 of that comes from new property added to the tax roll this year.
Never Late News subtracted the two figures: about $24.1 million of the increase, roughly three of every four new dollars, comes from property that was already on the roll last year. That is the revenue the college would have given up by lowering the Dallas College tax rate to the no-new-revenue level.
The college’s state-required “Notice About 2026 Tax Rates,” certified Aug. 4 by Dallas County Tax Assessor-Collector John R. Ames, also lists the debt picture:
- Total 2026 debt service: $94,073,697.
- Paid from existing unencumbered funds: $2,893,082.
- To be paid from property taxes: $91,180,615.
- Estimated unencumbered balances at year end: $258,190,655 in the operating fund and $8,100,000 in the debt fund.
By Never Late News math, the debt levy is about 17.8% of the total 2026 levy. The rest pays for operations under a budget that runs from Sept. 1, 2026, through Aug. 31, 2027. The budget hearing was set for Aug. 11.
How the three big college districts compare
Tarrant County College and Collin College published the same kind of state notices, which lets readers line the three up side by side.
- Dallas College: $0.106575, unchanged. Average homestead tax $436.95, up $23.79 (5.76%). Total levy up 6.71%.
- Tarrant County College: 12 cents, up from 11.228 cents. The college says its average homestead taxable value fell from $359,898 to $341,599, yet the tax still rises $5.83, to $409.92. Total levy rises 5.39%, to $331,664,542. Trustees approved the rate Sept. 10.
- Collin College: its August hearing notice proposed keeping $0.081220, against a no-new-revenue rate of $0.080693. The average homestead tax would rise $7.11, or 1.93%, to $375.59 on a home valued at $462,432.
Per $100,000 of taxable value, Dallas College’s rate works out to about $106.58, compared with $120.00 for TCC and $81.22 for Collin College. On the average-home measure, the Dallas College increase is roughly four times TCC’s and more than three times Collin’s.
TCC is the only one of the three that raised its rate. Its Sept. 10 announcement cites a drop of about $39 billion in certified net taxable values and state formula funding of $59.6 million, about $4.1 million below what the college expected. TCC also keeps a homestead exemption equal to 1% of a home’s appraised value, with a $5,000 minimum.
Collin College voters also face a separate $600 million bond on Nov. 3. We broke down that measure in our Collin College bond explainer.
What it means for your bill
Each taxing unit on your statement uses the same formula: rate times taxable value, divided by 100. A Dallas County homestead with $300,000 of taxable value would owe about $319.73 to Dallas College this year. Your taxable value is the number on your appraisal notice after exemptions, not the market value.
The Dallas College tax rate is one line of several. The City of Dallas cut its rate this year, which we covered in our look at Dallas’ FY2026-27 budget, and Dallas ISD has started design work on its voter-approved $6.2 billion bond, covered in our Dallas ISD Bond 2026 report.
How Never Late News reported this
Every figure in this story comes from tax notices the three college districts are required to post, and each was checked against the original.
- Dallas College Notice of Public Hearing on Tax Increase (2026): proposed, no-new-revenue and voter-approval rates, trustee vote, average homestead table and levy.
- Dallas College Notice of Adopted Tax Rate: the 5.03% figure and the $0.00 statement.
- Dallas College Notice of Public Hearing on Adopting a Budget (2026): median homestead table, new property revenue and budget year.
- Dallas College Notice About 2026 Tax Rates: debt service and fund balances.
- TCC trustees approve 2026 tax rate and TCC taxpayer information: rate, average homestead and levy.
- Collin College 2026 notice of public hearing on tax increase: proposed rate and average homestead.
The comparisons, the $17.02 median difference, the share of new revenue from existing property, the debt share and the per $100,000 figures are Never Late News calculations from those records. Collin College’s figures are from its proposal notice; we did not locate its adopted-rate notice. No interviews were conducted for this report. To report an error, email editor@neverlatenews.com.