Property Tax Rate Increase

At a glance

What: Setting the City's 2026 property tax rates: 35.138 cents per $100 of taxable value for maintenance and operations and 21.150 cents for debt service, both increases.
Where it stands: Both rates approved September 17, 2026 on 7-4 votes, exactly the seven votes (60 percent of Council) state law requires for an increase.
Next: The rates fund the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget; had the vote failed, Walsh said he would have had to cut roughly another $75 million to $78 million.

Item 7, maintenance and operations rate of 35.138 cents per $100 (an increase): Viagran moved, Castillo seconded. Carried 7-4. Aye: Kaur, McKee-Rodriguez, Mungia, Castillo, Galvan, Meza Gonzalez, Viagran. No: Jones, Alderete Gavito, Spears, Whyte.
Item 8, debt service rate of 21.150 cents per $100 (an increase): Viagran moved, Castillo seconded. Carried 7-4 with the same members on each side.
Item 6, ordinance ratifying the budget as raising more property tax revenue than the FY 2026 budget: carried 7-4, same split.

September 10 public hearing on the rate: one speaker, Finger, opposed the increase.
September 15: Walsh explained 60 percent of Council, seven votes, is needed to approve an increase and the statutory deadline is September 27, 2026. Jones said the current rate would continue if seven votes were not there, and that about 270 positions would have to be eliminated without the increase. Villagomez said a $231,000 homestead would see its monthly impact rise by $2.95; a 1 percent General Fund cut would reduce the proposed increase from 2 cents to 0.8 cents ($1.54 a month). Viagran cited $17.74 a month for a $1 million home, and Galvan said the cost to the most vulnerable and low-income residents was about $4 a month.
Opposed: Whyte and Spears argued economic development, not taxes, should close the gap; Alderete Gavito said she would not support a tax increase and noted only a 1.6 percent additional reduction would have avoided one.
Supporters stressed the state's 3.5 percent revenue cap and that many homesteads are frozen (Meza Gonzalez: 10,000 of 25,000 in District 8).

Eight speakers, including Finger, opposed raising property taxes during the budget item.
Kaur said a million-dollar home already pays about $30,000 in taxes and $250 more would not be significant; McKee-Rodriguez said senior homestead taxes are frozen and higher income households would pay the increase; Mungia said the most humble residents were the first to accept an increase to protect services.
Whyte said higher property taxes would raise housing costs and hit renters; Jones said a zero increase was possible with reallocation or an across-the-board cut (see Across-the-Board Budget Reduction).
On September 10, Walsh told Council that if the rate vote failed, the City would need to cut a further $78 million (see Police Collective Bargaining Agreement).

Both rate ordinances and the ratification passed 7-4.

Seven-vote requirement and the September 27 deadline explained.

Public hearing on the 2026 tax rate and the FY 2027 proposed budget; Finger opposed the rate increase.