Howdy neighbors!

Welcome to the Harris County Emergency Services District 47 website. ESD 47, as we like to call it in a shortened form, is a political subdivision of the State of Texas that was created under guidelines set up in Section 775 of the Texas Health and Safety Code. On September 1, 2003, the District converted the Harris County Rural Fire Protection District 47 into the current organization. ESD 47 may provide fire suppression, fire prevention, rescue and emergency medical services, but is not required to perform all services. Harris County Emergency Services District 47 is governed by a board of five publicly elected commissioners.

ESD 47 covers about 10 square miles in western Harris County, stretching from the Houston city limits westward along the Katy Freeway to Mason Rd, then from I-10 north on Mason to Franz Rd, east on Franz to Fry Rd, then turning north on Fry Rd to Clay Rd, and finally east along Clay back to the Houston City limits. The District is home to approximately 95,000 residents. It takes in parts of two zip codes, 77449 and 77084. Zip 77449 is the second most populous zip code in the state of Texas and zip 77084 comes in at number four. ESD 47 is nearly 98% built out with either commercial or residential construction.

On January 20, 2005, ESD 47 entered into a contractual agreement with the Westlake Volunteer Fire Department to provide fire suppression , rescue, and emergency medical services within the confines of the District. The job of ESD 47 is to make sure that Westlake is in a position to render service and assistance to the citizens and property of the District by acting as a stable funding source. The District has a fire station at 19636 Saums Road. Included in the facilities is a large meeting room that is often used for HOA meetings, election polling, church and social gatherings, and memorial services, just to name a few. It truly is a "community room." Those wishing to use the meeting room or tour the station may contact the Westlake VFD business office during their normal hours.

Thanks for stopping by our website. Stay safe!

A Notice About 2023 Property Tax Rates in Harris County Emergency Services District No. 47

We received notice that HCAD discovered an error in their calculation of line 3B partially exempt amount from their tax rate worksheet. This number is used in line 10 of the Comptroller tax rate worksheet.    

Comptroller Tax Rate Exemptions Partial Exemption line. 

Line # 10 2022 taxable value lost because property first qualified for an exemption in 2023. If the taxing unit increased an original exemption, use the difference between the original exempted amount and the increased exempted amount. Do not include value lost due to freeport, goods- in-transit, temporary disaster exemptions. Note that lowering the amount or percentage of an existing exemption in 2023 does not create a new exemption or reduce taxable value. 

A. Absolute exemptions. Use 2022 market value: . $ 0

B. Partial exemptions. 2023 exemption amount or 2023 percentage exemption times 2022 value: . + $97,692

C. Value loss. Add A and B. + $97,692

We will be providing update worksheets to you as soon as we get them all updated.
Notice: Correct information posted at 10:45AM local time on August 16, 2023.

This notice concerns the property tax rates for Harris County Emergency Services District No. 47. This notice provides information about tax rates used in adopting the current tax year’s tax rate.
The No New Revenue Tax Rate is the tax rate that would generate the same amount of revenue in the current tax year as was generated by the taxing unit’s adopted tax rate in the preceding tax year from property that is taxable in both the current tax year and the preceding tax year.
The Voter Approval Tax Rate, in most cases, is the highest tax rate a taxing unit can adopt without holding an election. In each case, these rates are calculated by dividing a taxing unit’s total amount of tax levy by its current taxable value with adjustments as required by state law.
The maintenance and operations rate is the component of the adopted tax rate of a taxing unit that will impose the amount of taxes needed to fund maintenance and operations expenditures of the taxing unit for the following year. The No New Revenue Maintenance and Operations Tax Rate is the tax rate that would generate the same amount of revenue for the taxing unit’s maintenance and operations in the current tax year as was generated by the taxing unit’s maintenance and operations tax rate in the preceding tax year from property that is taxable in both current tax year and the preceding tax year.
The De Minimis Tax Rate is the rate for a taxing unit’s current tax year that will generate $500,000 in property tax revenue above the amount generated by the taxing unit’s current tax year No New Revenue Maintenance and Operations rate.
The Debt Tax Rate is the component of the adopted tax rate of a taxing unit that will impose the amount of taxes needed to fund the taxing unit’s qualifying debt service for the following year.
The Proposed Tax Rate is the tax rate that a taxing unit is planning to adopt for the current tax year.
The Adopted Tax Rate is the tax rate for the current tax year that a taxing unit has set in open meeting.

2023 NO NEW REVENUE TAX RATE

$ 0.073242 per $100 appraised value

The No New Revenue Tax Rate is the tax rate for the 2023 tax year that will generate the same amount of property tax revenue for Harris County Emergency Service District 47 from the same properties in taxed both the 2022 tax year and the 2023 tax year. This rate was calculated by dividing the District's year 2022 Adjusted Tax Levy of $4,072,954 by the District's Year 2023 Adjusted Taxable Value of $5,560,950,157 and then multiplying the result by $100.

2023 VOTER APPROVAL TAX RATE

$ 0.075806 per $100 appraised value

The Voter Approval Tax Rate is the tax rate for the 2023 tax year that will increase property tax revenue for Harris County Emergency Service District 47 by 3.5% over the District’s tax year 2022 amount. The Voter Approval Tax Rate is the highest tax rate that Harris County Emergency Services District 47 may adopt without holding an election to seek voter approval of the proposed tax rate, unless the De Minimis Tax Rate for Harris County Emergency Services District 47 exceeds the Voter Approval Tax Rate for Harris County Emergency Services District 47. This rate was calculated by multiplying the District's year 2023 Adjusted No New Revenue Maintenance and Operations Tax Rate of $ 0.073243 by 1.035.

2023 De MINIMIS TAX RATE

$ 0.082179 per $100 appraised value

The De Minimis Tax Rate is the rate equal to the sum of the tax year 2023 No New Revenue Maintenance and Operations Tax Rate of $ 0.073243 for Harris County Emergency Services District 47, the rate that will raise $500,000 (dividing $500,000 by the District's year 2023 Total Taxable Value of $ 5,595,109,162 and multiplying the result by $100 to equal $0.008936 ), and the tax year 2023 Debt Tax Rate for Harris County Emergency Services District 47 ($ 0.00). If the proposed tax rate is greater than both the Voter Approval Tax Rate and the De Minimis Tax Rate, an election to seek voter approval of the proposed rate is required by state law.

To see the full calculations, please click on the button immediately below to access a copy of the Tax Rate Calculation Worksheet.

_____________________________
Unencumbered Fund Balances
The following estimated balances will be left in the taxing unit's (Harris County Emergency Services District 47) accounts at the end of the fiscal year 2022. These balances are not encumbered by corresponding debt obligation.
Type of Fund Balance
General Fund $12,762,561.00
_____________________________
Current Year Debt Service The taxing unit (Harris County Emergency Services District 47) plans to pay the following amounts for long-term debts that are secured by property taxes. These amounts will be paid from upcoming property tax revenues (or additional sales tax revenues, if applicable).
Description of Debt
n/a
Principal or Contract Payment to be Paid from Property Taxes
- 0 -
Interest to be Paid from Property Taxes
- 0 -
Other Amounts to be Paid
- 0 -
Total Payment
- 0 -
_____________________________
Total required for 2023 debt service 0
— Amount (if any) paid from funds
listed in unencumbered funds 0
— Amount (if any) paid from
other resources 0
— Excess collections last year 0
= Total to be paid from taxes in 2023 0
collect only 0.00% of its taxes in 2023 0
=Total debt levy 0

This notice contains a summary of actual no-new-revenue and voter-approval calculations as certified by Ann Harris-Bennett, Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector on 05/18/2023.
Visit Texas.gov/PropertyTaxes to find a link to your local property tax data base on which you can easily access information regarding your property taxes, including information about proposed tax rates and scheduled public hearings of each entity that taxes your property.
The 86th Texas Legislature modified the manner in which the voter-approval tax rate is calculated to limit the rate of growth of property taxes in the state.