Fort Bend County commissioners voted 4-0 on Sept. 10 to cut the county tax rate to 40.7 cents per $100 of taxable value. For Katy and Fulshear homeowners with a median-value homestead taxed at about $290,000, county officials said the cut amounts to roughly $15 in annual savings.

The rate is half a cent below the 41.2 cents originally proposed for tax year 2026. The county will absorb about $6.4 million in lost revenue from its fund balance, Finance Director Pamela Gubbels said, according to the Fort Bend Herald.

The vote came only after Democratic Commissioners Grady Prestage and Dexter McCoy ended a boycott of Commissioners Court that had lasted about two and a half months. The two walked out of a June 25 meeting, arguing that Interim County Judge Daniel Wong's appointment had expired. Texas law requires at least four of the court's five members to levy a tax rate.

Had the boycott continued, the county would have been forced to adopt a lower no-new-revenue rate of about 39.6 cents. County Auditor Ed Sturdivant warned in August that falling to that rate would require pausing mobility, infrastructure, parks and flood mitigation projects, Houston Public Media reported.

Prestage and McCoy returned to ensure a quorum but did not drop their legal challenge to Wong's authority. McCoy said the half-cent reduction seemed like "an 11th-hour proposal" and questioned whether the court had analyzed its financial impact. Prestage hesitated before casting his vote for the lower rate, the Herald reported.

"Families are paying more for groceries, insurance, utilities, and housing," Wong said at the meeting. "That's why I'm proposing that we lower our county tax rate by half a cent to 40.7 cents."

McCoy walked out during the tax rate vote after Wong declined to say aloud whether he would vote on the measure.

McCoy abstained.

The Houston Press reported that McCoy said his presence was meant "to ensure we have a quorum and four lawful votes to pass a county tax rate."

The same day, commissioners adopted the $827.7 million fiscal year 2027 budget in a separate 3-2 vote. Wong, Precinct 1 Commissioner Vincent Morales and Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers voted for it. Prestage and McCoy voted against, citing what McCoy called "unlawful actions of this court in removing staff and personnel from elected officials' offices."

The budget includes a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment for employees hired before July 1. It also cuts the number of associate district court judges from eight to five and moves County Attorney's Office staff to a new legal division under the commissioners court.

Wong and McCoy face each other in the Nov. 3 county judge election. A trial over Wong's authority to serve is set for Nov. 10. The next Commissioners Court meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 24.