County debt per resident, interest costs and public safety's share (DRAFT – not published)

In short

Williamson County owed about $2,049 per resident in tax-backed debt in fiscal 2025. That is more than Hays ($1,525), Fort Bend ($1,124), Travis ($858) or Collin ($783). Interest took about 5 cents of each county dollar spent in 2025, down from 12 cents in 2016. Public safety’s share of day-to-day spending fell from 41% to 25% over the same years, even though its dollars rose 69%. (Sources: Texas Bond Review Board; U.S. Census Bureau; county audited reports.)

Debt per resident, five counties

County	Debt owed, FY2025	Residents, July 2024	Per resident (our math)
Williamson	$1,490.9M	727,480	$2,049
Hays	$445.3M (plus $45.4M backed by fees)	292,029	$1,525
Fort Bend	$1,077.4M	958,434	$1,124
Travis	$1,169.9M	1,363,767	$858
Collin	$982.8M	1,254,658	$783

“Debt owed” is the unpaid principal on tax-backed debt reported to the state. It does not include interest still to come.¹²

Counterweights

• What it bought. Debt per resident does not show what the money paid for. This page does not measure that.
• Different jobs. Counties do not all run the same services. The state list counts each government on its own, so debt owed by separate local bodies in a county is not in these county totals.¹
• Ratings. Two rating firms give Williamson their top grade, AAA. The top grade means the rating firms see very little risk it won’t be repaid.³
• Not all your debt. If you live in Leander, you also pay toward city, school district and maybe special-district debt. See local governments compared.

How much goes to interest

Fiscal year	Interest paid	Share of all spending	Share of tax revenue	Principal + interest share of non-building spending (audit’s figure)
2016	$39.7M	12.0%	17.4%	31.2%
2019	$34.9M	7.7%	11.3%	28.4%
2022	$39.5M	6.4%	9.9%	31.5%
2025	$57.1M	5.2%	9.5%	26.7%

Interest dollars rose 44% from 2016 to 2025. But spending and taxes grew faster, so interest is a smaller share. Payments on debt (principal plus interest) stayed between about 24% and 35% of non-building spending all ten years.⁴

• Counterweight: the 2025 spending total includes large one-time road costs and hospital pass-through money. That makes interest look smaller as a share. Interest as a share of tax revenue (9.5%) avoids this, and it is still down from 17.4% in 2016.⁴
• Counterweight: new notes sold in 2026 will add interest that is not in these audited years. See county debt explained.

Interest share: Williamson and three peers

We did the same math for three other counties: interest paid by the general government funds, divided by all their spending and by their tax revenue, from each county’s own audit. Hays County is not included yet. Its website blocked our download.

County	Interest paid, FY2025	Share of all spending	Share of tax revenue	Share of all spending, FY2016
Williamson	$57.1M	5.2%	9.5%	12.0%
Fort Bend	$51.9M	5.3%	9.8%	3.8%
Collin	$42.5M	4.6%	11.7%	5.8%
Travis	$48.9M	3.7%	4.5%	3.0%

Sources: Williamson, Table 4;⁴ Travis, Fort Bend and Collin, their FY2025 audits.⁵ Shares are our math.

• What stands out: Williamson’s interest share fell by more than half since 2016. Fort Bend’s and Travis’s rose. In 2025 Williamson sits in the middle of the group.
• Counterweight: counties count “taxes” a bit differently. Fort Bend’s figure is property plus sales tax. Travis’s interest line also includes “other charges.” Collin’s 2025 spending was swollen by large pass-through and grant money, which makes its spending share look smaller and its tax share look bigger.
• Counterweight: Travis collects about 1.8 times Williamson’s tax revenue ($1.08B vs. about $0.60B, our math).⁵⁴ A lower share there does not mean it pays less interest in dollars.

Public safety’s share

“Public safety” in the audit includes the sheriff, the jail, constables, emergency services and similar offices. It is not the sheriff alone.

Fiscal year	Public safety spending	Share of day-to-day spending (our math)
2016	$83.4M	41.2%
2019	$95.1M	35.2%
2022	$107.4M	32.2%
2024	$131.2M	32.0%
2025	$140.9M	25.3%

“Day-to-day spending” is all government spending minus building costs and debt payments.⁴

• Public safety dollars rose 69%. Its share fell because other costs rose faster, mostly general government, roads and community services.⁴
• The 2025 drop is mostly one year’s jump in other costs, including hospital pass-through money. From 2019 to 2024 the share held near 32–35%.⁴
• The audit does not split the sheriff from the jail or other offices in this table. See public safety and jail for jail use.

The law, briefly

• Every bond needs the Attorney General’s approval before it is sold (Texas Government Code §1202.003).⁶
• Voters approve most bonds. The court can also sell certificates of obligation and tax notes without an election, within limits in Local Government Code chapter 271 and Government Code chapter 1431.⁶
• Debt taxes sit outside the 3.5% cap. The county’s yearly vote-trigger limit applies to the operating part of the tax rate. The debt part is added on top (Tax Code §26.04).⁶ So debt growth can raise tax bills without an election on the rate.
• Constitutional cap. County taxes for most purposes are capped at 80 cents per $100 of value (Texas Constitution, Art. VIII, §9).⁶

Questions to ask

• Where does the county post sheriff and jail spending apart from other public safety?
• How does the county track its interest costs over time?

Changes to this page

• Nov. 2, 2026: Added questions to ask.
• Nov. 2, 2026: We re-checked every figure against its source. We replaced two counterweights that had no source.

What we still don’t know

• Sheriff and jail spending apart from other public safety offices for all ten years.
• Interest share for Hays County (its website blocked our download).

Numbers marked “our math” are our estimates, not official figures. The notes show the inputs and the steps.

Footnotes

1. Texas Bond Review Board, local government debt outstanding, fiscal year 2025, principal by government and pledge type (data.texas.gov dataset 6d42-4z7a, read 2026-11-01). Tax-backed (GO) principal: Williamson $1,490,915,000; Hays $445,260,000 (plus revenue $45,359,000); Fort Bend $1,077,388,859; Travis $1,169,850,000; Collin $982,755,000. https://data.texas.gov/resource/6d42-4z7a.json ↩ ↩²

2. U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024 population estimates, July 1, 2024 (sub-est2024.csv). https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/datasets/2020-2024/cities/totals/sub-est2024.csv ↩

3. Williamson County FY2025 ACFR, debt notes and ratings. Public copy: https://emma.msrb.org/P11938140.pdf (MSRB EMMA). ↩

4. Williamson County FY2025 ACFR, statistical section, Table 4 “Changes in Fund Balances, Governmental Funds, Last Ten Fiscal Years,” p.158. Public copy: https://emma.msrb.org/P11938140.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

5. FY2025 audited reports (fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2025), statistical section, changes in fund balances of governmental funds. Travis County, Schedules 4–5, pp. ST-9 to ST-10, https://tctransparency.traviscountytx.gov/Reports/FinancialDocuments/fy2025-acfr.pdf (interest and other charges $48,943K; total spending $1,335,644K; taxes $1,080,320K; 2016: $23,236K of $762,192K). Collin County, Table 1.4, pp. 212–213, https://www.collincountytx.gov/docs/default-source/county-auditor/annual-fiscal-reports/fy-2025-annual-comprehensive-financial-report.pdf (interest $42,503K; spending $929,329K; taxes $361,853K; 2016: $16,413K of $283,673K). Fort Bend County, pp. 152–153, https://transparencydocs.fortbendcountytx.gov/Traditional_Finances/2025/FY2025_ACFR.pdf (interest $51,872,119; spending $974,072,787; property and sales taxes $527,932,970; 2016: $15,506,610 of $407,345,198). Read 2026-11-01. ↩ ↩²

6. Texas Government Code §1202.003 and ch. 1431; Local Government Code ch. 271 subch. C; Texas Tax Code §26.04; Texas Constitution Art. VIII §9. https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/ (read 2026-11-01). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴