Lago Vista fire district keeps 10-cent tax, plans $15.2M budget

Percentages, differences, and per-home or per-month figures in this story are our calculations from the cited records. Tax rates are dollars per $100 of taxable value, which is a property's value after exemptions.

What ESD 1 is and who decides

An emergency services district (ESD) is a local government that Texas law calls a political subdivision of the state. State law lets it hire employees and collect taxes.⁶ ESD 1 covers 178 square miles of northwest Travis County, from the Burnet County line on the west to the Williamson County line on the east.⁷ It lists the City of Lago Vista, the City of Jonestown, and the Village of Point Venture among the communities it serves.⁸

ESD 1 pays for its work with property tax, sales tax, and payments from Travis County ESD 7.⁴ Those payments come under an interlocal agreement, which is a contract between two local governments.⁸ Travis County ESD 7 is a separate emergency services district that levies its own tax, also $0.10 per $100 in 2026.⁹ Under the agreement, ESD 1 provides emergency medical services within ESD 7's boundaries on ESD 7's behalf.⁸

The district's fiscal year, its budget year, ends Sept. 30, so fiscal 2027 ends Sept. 30, 2027.⁸ The district's notice says it intends to adopt its budget on or before Sept. 30, 2026.³

Five commissioners run the district. They are Mark Evert, Steve Finley, Clint Surginer, Mary Cameron, and Colleen O'Brien.¹ The district's audit says its board of commissioners is appointed by the Travis County Commissioners Court.⁸

The no-new-revenue (NNR) rate is the rate that would raise the same tax from the same properties as the year before. The worksheet says that when appraisal values rise, the NNR rate should fall. The voter-approval rate is the highest rate a district may adopt without an election.¹⁰ ESD 1's rate has two parts, a maintenance and operations (M&O) rate and a debt service rate, which pays back borrowed money.¹ The median-valued homestead is the middle value among homesteads in the district, with half worth more and half worth less.³

How the rate got to $0.10

The Travis County Tax Office's rate table lists ESD 1's total rate as $0.10 in each year from 2022 through 2026.⁹

The budget for fiscal 2025, dated Aug. 22, 2024, planned $13,105,178 in income and $11,707,199 in spending.¹¹ The budget for fiscal 2026 planned $13,436,866 in income and $12,852,226 in spending.⁵ Each of those two budgets kept the $0.10 rate.^5,11

On Sept. 10, 2025, all five commissioners voted for the 2025 rate. The 2025 resolution says the rate would raise more maintenance and operations tax than the year before, about $0.60 more on a $100,000 home.² The district's 2025 worksheet put its NNR rate at $0.1008, so $0.10 sat just below it. The same worksheet put its voter-approval rate at $0.1028.¹²

What the 2025 audit showed

The audit for the year that ended Sept. 30, 2025, shows the general fund spent $15,471,818. It says actual spending ran $1,912,063 over the budgeted amounts, mainly for capital outlay. Capital outlay is money spent on assets that last for years, such as fire trucks and equipment. The audit says actual revenue ran $1,083,221 over budget, mainly because grants and interlocal agreements were under-budgeted.⁸

The general fund ended that year with $5,660,442, up from $810,098 a year earlier. That year the district also took out a $2,665,300 loan, dated Sept. 10, 2025, to buy fire apparatus.⁸

The Aug. 12, 2026, meeting

The commissioners of ESD 1 and ESD 7 held a joint meeting on Aug. 12, 2026. Commissioner Steve Finley called the meeting to order at 3:36 p.m. Commissioners Mary Cameron, Colleen O'Brien, Clint Surginer, and Finley were present, and Evert was not.¹³

The commissioners heard a presentation of the preliminary 2026-27 budget, and the minutes say no action was needed. Surginer then moved to propose a 2026 ESD 1 tax rate of .10, Cameron seconded, and the four commissioners present voted aye, 4-0. Surginer next moved the same .10 rate proposal for ESD 7, O'Brien seconded, and it also passed 4-0. Cameron next moved to set a public hearing for Sept. 9, 2026, at 2:30 p.m., and Surginer seconded. The minutes say all voted aye and the motion passed, but they give no tally.¹³

The Sept. 9, 2026, hearing and rate vote

The district's public notice called a hearing and special meeting for 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 9, 2026, in Lago Vista. It listed a public hearing on the tax rate and then four items to adopt the 2027 budget, the maintenance rate, the debt rate, and the total rate. A 2025 state law, House Bill 1522, requires such a notice to include a taxpayer impact statement for the median-valued home.³

That statement puts the median home at $439,088 in 2025 and $399,766 in 2026. At the $0.10 rate, the bill falls from $439.09 to $399.77. At the $0.1052 NNR rate, the same home would pay $420.55.³

The district's 2026 worksheet shows that total taxable value fell.¹⁰ Total taxable value was $6,924,022,773 on the 2025 worksheet and is $6,688,190,443 on the 2026 worksheet, a drop of 3.4%. The NNR rate rose from $0.1008 to $0.1052.^10,12

The 2026 worksheet puts the voter-approval rate at $0.1105. That rate includes unused room from earlier years.¹⁰ The county tax office's table lists the same $0.1105.⁹ The $0.10 rate is below both the NNR rate and the voter-approval rate.¹⁰

The signed resolution says the adopted rates are $0.0759 for maintenance and operations and $0.0241 for debt service. It also says the rate "will not raise more taxes for maintenance and operations than last year's tax rate."¹

How they voted

The signed resolution shows Mark Evert, Steve Finley, Mary Cameron, and Colleen O'Brien present and voting for the rate on Sept. 9. It shows Clint Surginer absent. It marks no one against and no one abstaining.¹

The resolution covers the rate only, and the minutes of the Sept. 9 meeting are not posted in the records we reviewed. So who moved and seconded the rate, and how each commissioner voted on the budget, is not confirmed.³ The district's posted 2027 budget is titled "Adopted Budget."⁴

What the 2027 budget says

The 2027 budget counts $15,596,959 in income and $15,241,048 in spending, which leaves $355,911.⁴ Income is 16.1% above the 2026 budget's $13,436,866, and spending is 18.6% above its $12,852,226.^4,5 The plan is $230,770 less than the general fund spent in fiscal 2025.^4,8 The 2026 budget left $584,640.⁵ The 2025 budget left $1,397,978.¹¹

Pay and benefits are the biggest cost.⁴ They total $11,458,500, which is 75.2% of spending and $1,963,500 more than the $9,495,000 in the 2026 budget.^4,5 The budget does not say why.⁴

Within that, the budget raises base payroll from $6,950,000 to $8,080,000. It raises medical, dental, and life insurance from $750,000 to $1,125,000.^4,5

Loan payments take $1,608,658, made up of $365,381 in interest and $1,243,277 in principal. That equals the $1,608,658 the budget lists as tax collections for debt service.⁴ The audit says ESD 1 carried $13,605,370 in promissory notes, which are loans, at the end of fiscal 2025. It says ESD 7 intends to pay ESD 1 its share of several of those notes.⁸

Property tax collections are $6,608,658, which is 42.4% of income and the largest single source. The next largest is $6,000,000 from ESD 7.⁴ That is up from $5,000,000 in the 2026 budget.⁵ It was $4,550,000 in the 2025 budget.¹¹

The audit says the district provides emergency medical services (EMS) on ESD 7's behalf within ESD 7's boundaries under an interlocal agreement that runs through fiscal 2037. That agreement's payment schedule lists $5,500,000 for 2027, which is $500,000 below the $6,000,000 in the budget.⁸ The records we reviewed do not explain the difference.⁴

The 2027 budget also counts a $1,178,301 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).⁴ The budget lists it as a grant from FEMA's Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) program.^4,14 FEMA says the program helps fire departments "increase or maintain the number of trained, 'front line' firefighters available in their communities."¹⁴ The 2026 budget did not list it.⁵ The 2027 budget does not give the grant's terms or end date.⁴

Together, ESD 7's payment and the grant come to $7,178,301, or 46.0% of income. Smaller income lines include $650,000 in sales and use tax, $375,000 for EMS standby and transport, $80,000 from the City of Lago Vista, and $25,000 from the City of Jonestown.⁴

ESD 1 and Lago Vista

The district's audit says it provides fire protection and emergency services to the City of Lago Vista under an agreement for $60,000 that began April 1, 2024. A second agreement pays $20,000 for emergency management services from March 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2028.⁸ The 2027 budget lists $80,000 of income from the City of Lago Vista, which matches those two amounts added together.^4,8

The records we reviewed do not say whether homes inside Lago Vista's city limits pay ESD 1's tax. State law says a city that annexes land inside an ESD is not required to remove that land from the district.¹⁵ The audit says annexation could shrink the property value inside the district, and it says no other entity had plans to annex property as of Sept. 30, 2025.⁸

The city council set the city's 2026 rate at $0.451988 per $100. On $100,000 of taxable value, that rate raises $451.99.¹⁶ ESD 1's $0.10 raises $100.00 on the same value.¹ A property taxed by both would carry both bills, but the records do not tell us which homes that is.⁷

Our earlier story, Lago Vista's rate against six cities, found that the city's $0.451988 rate ranked second of six cities. It compared city rates only and left ESD 1 out. Our Tessera story found six taxing units on every Tessera parcel, ESD 1 and ESD 7 among them, for a combined $2.187961 per $100 before the special assessments. Our Firefly Cove story also lists ESD 1 among the taxing units on parcels there.

What it means for you

A homeowner in ESD 1 with the median home pays $20.78 less than the NNR rate would have charged. The bill falls $39.32 from last year because the home's value fell.³ The rate itself stayed at $0.10. On a home whose taxable value did not change, the ESD 1 bill stays the same.^1,2 A property inside both ESD 1 and ESD 7 pays both rates, $0.20 per $100 in all, or $200 on $100,000 of taxable value.⁹

The budget counts $1,000,000 more from ESD 7 than the 2026 budget did, and a new $1,178,301 grant.^4,5 It leaves $355,911 unspent, which is 2.3% of its spending.⁴

The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) sets a common yardstick for savings. It recommends that a general fund hold, at a minimum, savings equal to two months of regular revenue or spending. GFOA counts only money the government itself can choose how to spend.¹⁷ It aims that minimum at general-purpose governments, and ESD 1 is a fire and EMS district, so we use it only as a comparison.^8,17

ESD 1's general fund ended fiscal 2025 with $5,660,442, which is about 4.4 months of that year's $15,471,818 in spending. That balance includes money from the $2,665,300 fire apparatus loan.⁸ GFOA also says a government that may face cuts in federal grants "may need to maintain a higher level in the unrestricted fund balance."¹⁷ The 2027 budget lists a $1,178,301 federal grant, and the records we reviewed do not show its terms.⁴

Where it stands

The Sept. 9 agenda set the board's next regular meeting for Oct. 14, 2026, at 3:30 p.m.¹⁸

What we could not find

• The minutes of the Sept. 9, 2026, meetings, which would show who moved, who seconded, and how each commissioner voted on the 2027 budget.³
• Which Lago Vista homes lie inside ESD 1 and pay its tax. A district boundary map, or the appraisal district's list of taxing units for each property, could show it.⁷
• Why the 2027 budget lists $6,000,000 from ESD 7 when the audit's payment schedule lists $5,500,000 for 2027.⁸
• The terms and end date of the $1,178,301 FEMA SAFER grant, and what it pays for at ESD 1.⁴
• The reason for the 20.7% rise in pay and benefits, since the budget does not explain it.⁴

What you can do

• Attend a board meeting and ask when the Sept. 9 minutes will be posted. The Sept. 9 agenda set the next one for Oct. 14, 2026, at 3:30 p.m.¹⁸
• Read the district's budgets, tax rate documents, and audits on its website at tcesd1.org.⁷
• Look at your tax bill or your property's page at the Travis Central Appraisal District to see whether ESD 1 or ESD 7 appears among your taxing units.⁹
• Ask the district for the approved Sept. 9 minutes, its agreement with ESD 7, and the award papers for the SAFER grant.⁴

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