Tax bills go out in October. Most people look at one number, wince, and file it. The bill’s more useful than that, because it’s the only document all year that shows you what each taxing unit did to you separately.
Your bill isn’t one tax. In Guadalupe County it’s four to seven taxes stacked on one page.
Line one: the county
Guadalupe County appears on 113,520 accounts, which is all of them. For 2026, commissioners adopted a rate of $0.3493 per $100 of taxable value. That’s 4 percent above the no-new-revenue rate of $0.3359, and 5.7 percent above last year’s $0.3304. It’s also lower than the $0.3549 they originally proposed, because they voted to pull roughly $1.145 million out of fund balance to buy the difference down. Worth remembering the next time somebody tells you a rate cut and a tax cut are the same thing. On a $280,000 taxable value, the county’s share is about $978.
Line two: Lateral Road
Almost every account in the county carries it, and almost nobody can tell you what it is. It’s the county’s road and bridge levy, and it’s on 113,517 accounts. Here’s the part that trips people up: it’s already inside the county’s $0.3493. About $0.0529 of that rate is Lateral Road. So whether your bill splits it out or rolls it in, don’t add it on top. You’d be paying a nickel per $100 that isn’t there.
Line three: your school district
This is the big one, usually more than half your bill. Which district you’re in matters more than anything else on the page. Guadalupe County contains pieces of nine: Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City, Seguin, New Braunfels, Navarro, Marion, Comal, San Marcos, La Vernia and Luling.
One thing to watch this year: Seguin ISD has a voter-approval tax ratification election on the November 3 ballot. The district’s asking voters to approve a rate of $1.0828, the same total rate it’s charged for the last two years, to pull in roughly $1.5 million in additional state funding on top of about $950,000 in local revenue. Whatever you think of it, understand the mechanics before you vote: a VATRE isn’t automatically a rate increase, and a flat rate on higher values is still a bigger bill.
Line four: your city
Only if you’re inside a city limit. About 13,988 single family homes in this county aren’t in any city. Seguin, Schertz, Cibolo, New Braunfels, Selma, Marion, Santa Clara, New Berlin, Universal City and a few others each set their own rate.
Line five and beyond: the special districts
This is where people get surprised. York Creek Water District is on 5,791 accounts. Lake Dunlap WCID, Lake McQueeney WCID, Lone Oak Farm MUD and several other MUDs each cover a few hundred to a couple thousand. If you bought in a newer subdivision, there’s a real chance you’re paying a district your neighbors across the highway aren’t.
How the math works, line by line
Each unit takes your taxable value for that unit, divides by 100, and multiplies by its rate. Your taxable value isn’t the same on every line, because exemptions don’t apply evenly. The $140,000 homestead exemption is a school district exemption. Cities and counties can adopt a local option of up to 20 percent, and the county can add a $3,000 farm-to-market exemption. That’s why the school line and the city line on the same bill start from two different numbers.
Over 65? Look at the school line
Your school district dollars should be frozen at the level of the year you qualified, under Section 11.26 of the Tax Code. It’s a dollar ceiling, not a rate ceiling, so it holds even as values rise. If your school line went up and you’ve had the exemption for years, that’s a phone call worth making.
Four dates to write down
- October: bills go out.
- January 31: payment’s due. It’s also the last day to file a Section 25.25(d) motion on a substantially wrong 2026 value, because that motion has to be in before the taxes go delinquent.
- February 1: unpaid taxes go delinquent.
- February on: penalty and interest start at 7 percent and climb every month.
Money tight? Two legal ways to slow it down
Homeowners who are over 65, disabled, or a qualifying disabled veteran can pay a homestead bill in four equal installments under Section 31.031, by asking for it with the first payment before January 31. Anyone can request an installment agreement from the tax office on delinquent taxes, though penalty and interest keep running. Neither one’s advertised on the bill.
What the bill won’t tell you
It shows what you owe. It doesn’t show whether the value behind it was right, and by October that argument’s over for the year. The value on your October bill was set in the spring, and the place to fight it was the protest window, which for most homeowners closed May 15.
So the smart move in October isn’t to argue with the bill. It’s to check your exemptions, check which special districts are on the page, and put April on the calendar. Or sign up now and I’m watching for your notice the day it lands.
Sources: Guadalupe County’s 2026 adopted rate of $0.3493 per $100 (including $0.0529 for Lateral Road) and the $0.3359 no-new-revenue rate come from the county’s adopted budget notice and September 1 rate order. Seguin ISD’s $1.0828 figure comes from the district’s rate order and VATRE order. Account counts by taxing unit come from the Guadalupe Appraisal District 2026 certified roll, supplement 16. Every taxing unit’s adopted rate for your property is on the state’s property tax database, linked from Texas.gov/PropertyTaxes.
