The Municipal Page · Council on Local Relations New here? Start with the Primer →

 

Your house in Deer Park is worth about $262,000. You pay roughly $6,800 a year in property taxes on it.

Right now, the refineries and plants just outside the city limits pay Deer Park about $14.9 million a year — money that covers a big share of the city’s bills instead of coming out of yours.

If that deal ever ended, the city would have to make it up from homeowners: about $840–$1,050 more a year on a house like yours — a 56% jump in the city’s tax rate.

Everything on this page is how we know that — figure by figure, from Deer Park’s FY2025 audited financial report, the 2025 county appraisal roll, and the city’s own tax-rate filing. With the receipts — 60 corrections already published on the record.

What this page covers

This analyzes the finances of the City of Deer Park’s government — which collects only about 28¢ of every property-tax dollar you pay. Your total tax bill, and the public finances of where you live, also include the school district (about 43¢, analyzed separately), Harris County, the hospital and college districts, flood control, and the port — separate governments with separate books, shown for context in your whole tax bill below. “City finances” is not “everything you pay.”

The money in

$67,050,425

Where the town's money actually comes from — its own recurring revenue, before grants or one-time money.

Where it goes

$66,389,969

What the town spent this year, by function - the flow, decomposed the way the money-in page decomposes revenue.

What it owes

$149,183,110

Debt to its last scheduled payment, plus the pension and retiree-health promises already earned - what the town owes, not what it spent.

The trend

$70,178,308

Where the numbers have been heading across fifteen years — the direction, not any single year.

What the future actually holds

−$4,443,928

Whether the town's own money covers what it has already promised — without borrowing more.

What the land produces

-$21.5M/yr

Which development patterns pay for themselves — the net the land produces once expenses are counted.

Your whole tax bill

$2.604857 per $100

Eight governments tax the same parcel; the city sets only about a quarter of the bill.

The industrial district

$2,273,908,892

The off-roll industrial district — value the city does not tax, and the payments it takes instead.

The record

What the council decided, and how each member voted — the record, on the record.

School District

Deer Park ISD — the largest slice of your tax bill, decoded: revenue, spending, debt, promises, reserves, direction.

Special Districts

The sales-tax bodies — police, fire/EMS, and development — funded off the property-tax bill by citizen board.

Housing

1,611 permits

The public housing record — permits, appraised values, and the tax-sale ledger, each on an openable county record. No listings, no forecast.

Housing-Ready

Strong Towns' Housing-Ready framework, scored section by section against Deer Park's own zoning code.

Crash Studio

The SH-225 corridor crash record from TxDOT CRIS — where crashes cluster and what the road design invites, read beyond blame.

Mission Accomplished

Does the town expand what it can't maintain? Deer Park's FY26 capital plan, categorized renewal vs new capacity.

Who governs

Who Governs — the offices that run Deer Park and how they connect.

The food system

$6.0484

The food system at the household layer - what one adult day of food costs here: ten Tier-A staples, frozen so the basket cannot drift.

Check our work

Every figure traces to a source; every correction is published here, not hidden.

Also from Think and Act Locally

Check our work →

Every figure on every page traces to a source; every correction is published, not hidden.