(ROCKWALL, TX — August 31, 2018) As county judge, I’d like to take a minute to touch on the tremendous growth that Rockwall County is currently experiencing and will likely continue to experience in the future. I want to highlight some numbers that show just how fast the county has been growing, what’s behind that growth and what makes Rockwall County such a special place to live.
A little under 98,000 folks make their home here in Rockwall County. We are the number nine fastest growing county percentage wise in the state of Texas. A lot of that growth has happened in the span of the last 20 years, with 60,000 people moving to Rockwall County in that time frame.
In the past year, the population of Rockwall County increased 5.2 percent – an addition of 4,860 people. However, we’re not the only county in North Texas experiencing such rapid growth. Collin County saw some significant growth with upwards of 37,000 folks moving into the county from 2017-2018. An additional 29,550 people moved into Denton County this past year, a 7.5 million people call the state of Texas their home. Just in the last year, that’s an addition of 145,000 people who have relocated to Texas.
What separates Rockwall County from all the other North Texas counties dealing with fast growth is that we’re growing in each and every one of our cities. Each of our cities has something special, and folks are relocating here in leaps and bounds. McLendon-Chisholm saw the most growth of all Rockwall County cities last year, with nearly 500 people moving into the city. McLendon-Chisholm was the sixth fastest growing city percentage wise in North Texas last year. The City of Fate also saw some great growth and was the number seven fastest growing city in the region.
Our current tax rate sits at little under 35 cents per $100 valuation, an almost three cent reduction from the Fiscal Year 2017. We’re at almost $33 million in the operating budget, and that’s split between the 26 cents per $100 valuation going to maintenance and operations. Our debt rate totals a little bit less than a dime. As far as allocation of taxes are concerned, around 12 to 15 percent of taxes that are collected go towards the county.
One thing I want to emphasize is that we didn’t just pull those numbers out of a hat. This is something that we work on all year long to plan. We truly are fiscally disciplined, as we should be as elected officials spending taxpayer money, and we do the best job we can of exercising that on a daily basis. It’s not just the work of myself as county judge or the commissioners, but a team effort by all of the elected officials and administrative employees throughout Rockwall County.
There’s no question that Rockwall County continues to be the county of choice for folks to live, work and play. The numbers don’t lie: Rockwall County truly is a destination location, and will continue to be for years to come.
Submitted by David Sweet, Rockwall County Judge.
Elected in November of 2014 as the Rockwall County Judge, Sweet previously served two terms as the Mayor of the City of Rockwall and as a City Council Member.
County Corner: Numbers Behind the Fast Growth of Rockwall County added by Austin on
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