The County Voted 3-2 Tuesday to Raise Its Tax Rate. Magnolia's Commissioner Was in the Three.

Montgomery County Commissioners Court adopted its 2026-27 budget on Tuesday, September 8, in a special session, by a vote of 3-2. The budget is $546.8 million. The tax rate that funds it is $0.3860 per $100 of value, up from $0.3770 last year.

Precinct 3's Ritch Wheeler and Precinct 4's Matt Gray voted no. County Judge Mark Keough, Precinct 1's Robert Walker and Precinct 2's Charlie Riley, whose precinct includes Magnolia, voted yes.

In July we wrote that a rate can land above the no-new-revenue figure and below the voter-approval ceiling, and that in that gap a government collects more money without asking anyone. This one did exactly that. The no-new-revenue rate, the one that would have raised the same money from the same properties as last year, was $0.3706. The voter-approval rate was estimated at $0.4136. The adopted $0.3860 sits between them, so no election is triggered. Of the adopted rate, $0.3415 goes to operations and $0.0445 to debt.

The county's taxpayer impact statement puts the cost to the median homestead at just over $30 a year more than last year, for the county's line only. Keough put the same number at two to three dollars a month. Those describe the same house.

What the money buys. Pay parity for law enforcement, which the court had already started on June 5 and which runs over $3 million. A 5 percent raise across the board for every other county employee. Funding for the new 523rd District Court. Capital projects and building maintenance. The total moved as the summer went on: $537.3 million in the July preliminary, $552.7 million at the end of the August workshops, $546.8 million adopted.

The two no votes were not about the rate as such. Wheeler, who came to the court from business, told his colleagues he does not believe in across-the-board raises and would rather pay for performance, and that other departments are short of people the money could have hired. He also made the point that more than 80 percent of the county is unincorporated, which means the county is asked to provide city-level services on a county budget. Walker, voting yes, called it one of the hardest budgets of his six years on the court. Keough argued the budget does more than raise pay.

For a Magnolia household the county is one line of several. Magnolia ISD adopted its rate on August 24. The city, the emergency services district, the college district and any municipal utility district set their own. The bills go out in October.

Editor's note on format. We ran this as straight reporting rather than a two-column both-sides piece because the vote is taken and the numbers are adopted: the rate, the budget totals and the impact statement are public record. The disagreement on the dais was over how raises should be structured, and we have given both positions as their holders stated them. Had we published before Tuesday's hearing, this would have been a two-column piece.