Homeowners in Katy ISD and Lamar Consolidated ISD pay school property tax rates near the middle of Fort Bend County's range for 2026, according to a Covering Katy analysis of all six districts serving the county.
The spread is wide. Brazos ISD charges the lowest rate at $0.88276 per $100 of taxable value. Needville ISD sits highest at roughly $1.23. On a home with $300,000 in taxable value, that gap equals about $1,042 a year.
Katy ISD's board approved a total rate of $1.1171 on Sept. 21, the third consecutive year at that level. The rate breaks down to $0.7271 for maintenance and operations (M&O) and $0.3900 for debt service, known as interest and sinking (I&S). Even with a flat rate, the average Katy ISD home tax bill will climb to an estimated $2,900, a 1.93% increase driven by rising property values, Community Impact reported.
Katy ISD CFO Chris Smith said at the Sept. 21 meeting that the district's taxable property value grew 1.5%. When local revenue rises, state funding drops. "The state legislature does try to offset that through homestead exemption increases or compressing the tax rate," Smith said, as reported by Community Impact on Sept. 23.
Lamar CISD's board set its rate at $1.1390 on Sept. 15, a 0.69% decrease from $1.1469 the prior year, Community Impact reported. The district's M&O rate is $0.6390, lower than Katy ISD's. Its I&S rate is $0.5000, the highest debt-service component among the six districts. Lamar CISD says the 50-cent debt-service rate accelerates principal payments on construction needed for its rapidly growing student population.
For a Lamar CISD home at the district's average value of $424,065, CFO Greg Buchanan said the lower rate produces an annual savings of $22.44. Buchanan presented those figures at the Sept. 15 board meeting, as reported by Community Impact on Sept. 17.
Fort Bend ISD adopted the second-lowest rate at $0.9969, a six-cent drop from the prior year. That decrease came largely because seven temporary disaster pennies added after Hurricane Beryl expired. Stafford Municipal School District (Stafford MSD) set its rate at $1.002121.
Here is how the six districts compare on a home with $300,000 in taxable value, after the state's $140,000 general homestead exemption on a $440,000 home:
- Needville ISD: ~$3,690
- Lamar CISD: $3,417
- Katy ISD: $3,351
- Stafford MSD: $3,006
- Fort Bend ISD: $2,991
- Brazos ISD: $2,648
Homeowners 65 or older or those with a disability may qualify for an additional $60,000 school district homestead exemption. School district taxes are only one portion of a property owner's total bill; depending on location, residents also pay taxes to Fort Bend County, a city and municipal utility districts.
Katy ISD tax statements reflecting the new rate will arrive later this fall, according to a Sept. 21 district news release.
