On August 12th, Council took their first vote to set the ad valorem property tax rates for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26).
Council followed the Mayor’s Administration’s recommendations to set tax rates at a level that raises revenue by 4% from FY25 in both the General Fund and the Urban Services Fund. You can read more about the other tax rate options Council were presented here.
🙋♀️ What are the General Fund and the Urban Services Fund?
The General Fund is the majority of LFUCG’s Budget. The City generally has a lot of flexibility regarding how the General Fund money is spent, and it is allocated toward most services and programs associated with local government.
The Urban Services Fund provides the majority of funding to three city services: street lights, garbage and recycling collection, and street sweeping.
You can learn more about these funds, and the rest of the City Budget, in our City Budget Explainer!
The General Fund tax rate will be .075 cents per $100 of taxable property value.
- A homeowner who owns a $260,000 house would pay $195 toward the General Fund under the Option 3 tax rate.
The Urban Services Fund has three rates: one for street lights (.027 cents per $100 of taxable property), street sweeping (.009 cents), and waste collection (.137 cents).
- A homeowner who owns a $260,000 house that has all three of these services would pay $449.80 toward the Urban Services Fund.
- Homeowners only pay taxes toward the services they receive. The PVA website has a calculator that will tell you how much you’ll owe in property taxes based on the services you receive.
- These rates enough revenue to fully pay for street lights and street cleaning, but would not raise enough to fully fund waste collection.
The rates will receive First Reading in August 14th Council Meeting, and then a public hearing and final vote of approval will be held on August 28th at 6pm.
You can reach out to your Councilmembers to share your thoughts on ad valorem taxes in Lexington. You can also sign up to give public comment during the Ad Valorem Public Hearing on August 28th at 6pm in Council Chambers!
