How Guadalupe County school tax rates work: operations, debt and elections

The summary gives total rates, not the M&O and I&S breakdown for each district. Its election notes make the listed 2026 totals especially important to verify after voting.

Who sets the rate?

Texas’ property tax process separates valuation from taxation. Appraisal districts appraise property and process exemption applications. A school district’s trustees prepare a budget and adopt a rate to support it under the state’s notice and tax-rate rules. The rate has an operations component and, where applicable, a debt component. The Texas Comptroller explains that a school district must hold a tax-rate ratification election when trustees adopt a rate above the voter-approval rate. Voters then decide whether the adopted rate can take effect.

Why Seguin’s number has an election caveat

Seguin ISD’s trustees adopted a 2026 total rate of $1.0828 per $100 of taxable value, divided into $0.6978 for M&O and $0.3850 for debt payments. The district’s election order sets a Nov. 3, 2026, vote on ratifying that rate. Thus the same $1.0828 total appearing in both years of the appraisal district’s summary does not settle the election question. The order says the proposed M&O rate exceeds the district’s voter-approval rate; the result of the vote will determine whether the adopted rate is ratified.

The appraisal district’s summary also flags a Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD election. It says that, if that election fails, the district’s M&O rate would revert to $0.6669 and its total rate would be $1.0769 per $100. Those are the summary’s stated conditional figures, not an election result. The summary does not provide comparable M&O and I&S splits for Navarro or Marion ISD.

Check the property, then the rate

Start with the Guadalupe Appraisal District’s property search to identify the taxing jurisdictions and review the property’s value and exemptions. Its resources page links to that search and to the tax-rate summary. For an official rate or levy calculation, follow the summary’s direction to the appropriate tax assessor-collector; for the Seguin election’s terms, read the district’s signed order. Those records answer different questions, and none of the four summary rates alone is a household bill estimate.