Orange County Commissioners Court and the Orange City Council are set to lower property taxes for the upcoming budget year. However, don’t plan for any big expenditures with your savings.
The owner of a house valued at $200,000 house with a homestead exemption of 20 percent, which both the city and county have, will save 18 cents with the lower city tax, and $18 with the county’s lower tax.
Orange County Commissioners Court will hold a public hearing at 10 a.m. Tuesday on the proposed county tax rate of 48 cents per $100 valuation, down from the current 49 cents per $100 valuation. The meeting will be held in Commissioners Courtroom in the administration building, 123 Sixth Street in Orange.
The Orange City Council will have a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Council Auditorium, next to the Orange Public Library, 202 Fifth Street. City Manager Mike Kunst is proposing a rate of 86.66 cents per $100 valuation, down from the current 86.667 cents per $100 valuation.
Comments from the public are welcomed during the meetings, but each speaker is limited to three minutes.
Property taxes depend on the valuations of land and buildings set each spring by the Orange County Tax Appraisal District. If the appraisal stayed the same from 2025 to 2026, the estimated savings above will be accurate.
Someone who had an increase in property value will pay more, even if the tax rate goes down. Tax bills also rely on various exemptions allowed by the state, like the homestead exemption, along with exemptions for the disabled and senior citizens.
Orange County’s proposed budget includes a $2 an hour cost-of-living pay raise for county employees. Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies and the assistants in the Orange Count District Attorney’s Office will get $3 an hour raise.
The city of Orange is not giving a cost-of-living raise this year to employees and is going a step down in health insurance coverage to save the almost 15 percent increase in rates. Employees may keep their previous level of coverage if they pay the difference in the cost. The city will not increase rates for water and sewer services, but City Manager Kunst wrote in his budget proposal that an increase will likely be needed next year. The county has no water and sewer service operations.
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