The data, with sources
The numbers behind the NO.
Every figure here traces to a public source: the ACC tax rate, Pflugerville ISD's certified taxable value, ACC's published fees, and ACC's own enrollment reporting.
$23 million in new taxes to save about $3 million in fees.
Here is the deal on the table: a new, permanent ACC property tax of about $23 million a year, in exchange for removing the out of district fee for the roughly 1,291 Pflugerville residents who attend ACC today. After the grant aid many of them already receive, the fee relief students actually keep is about $3 million a year.
| Figure | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Pflugerville ISD value ACC would newly tax | Travis certified roll, exact | $24.69 B |
| ACC taxable base after exemptions | After ACC exemptions, modeled | $21.75 B |
| New ACC levy at $0.1034 per $100 | Modeled, Travis County | ≈ $22.5 M / yr |
| Williamson County portion | ~195 homes, estimated | ≈ $0.2 M / yr |
| New tax Pflugerville would pay | Rounded total | ≈ $23 M / yr |
| Figure | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Pflugerville area ACC students (Fall 2025) | 78660 ZIP enrollment | ~1,291 |
| Average hours per student / year | ACC average load | 16.6 |
| Out of district fee per hour | Per credit hour | $201 |
| Fees charged, all students | 1,291 × 16.6 × $201 | $4.31 M |
| Less fees already covered by grants | ~27% of students, district wide | − $1.2 M |
| Real out of pocket relief | What students actually save | ≈ $3.1 M / yr |
Sources: ACC adopted FY2025 to 26 tax rate of $0.1034 (see also the ACC property tax worksheets); ACC out of district fee of $201 per credit hour; Travis Central Appraisal District 2026 certified appraisal roll, parcel level records for Pflugerville ISD and the Austin Community College District; Williamson CAD 2025 Annual Report for the roughly 195 home Pflugerville ISD portion in Williamson County. The taxable base and levy are modeled by applying ACC's published exemptions parcel by parcel; checked against the Pflugerville ISD parcels ACC already taxes, the model reproduces their taxable value within about 0.7%. Grant coverage from federal College Navigator data for ACC.
ACC's rate on all of Pflugerville ISD: about $26 million.
Applied to Pflugerville ISD's entire 2025 taxable value of about $24.8 billion, ACC's tax rate comes to roughly $26 million a year. About $23 million of that is the new tax annexation would add for Pflugerville property owners; the rest falls on property already inside ACC's district today.
| Figure | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| PfISD total taxable value (2025) | Certified taxable value | $24.8 B |
| ACC tax rate (FY 2025 to 26) | Per $100 of valuation | $0.1034 |
| Total at ACC's rate | Value × rate | ≈ $26 M / yr |
Pflugerville ISD 2025 certified taxable value of about $24.8 billion (the estimate presented at the May 2025 PfISD budget meeting was $24.9 billion), at ACC's adopted rate of $0.1034 per $100.
Tuition is already free. The fee is small, and often already covered.
ACC tuition is already free for Pflugerville graduates through the free tuition pilot. The only charge annexation removes is the out of district fee of $201 per credit hour, and many students never pay it out of pocket, because grants and scholarships already cover the fee for a meaningful share of them. That is why the real relief works out to about $3 million a year.
| Status | Tuition & general fees | Out of district fee |
|---|---|---|
| Free tuition pilot grad (today) | $0 | $201 |
| After annexation | $0 to low | $0 |
The real benefit is about $3 million. The out of district fee runs about $3,337 a year per student (16.6 hours at $201). Roughly 27% of ACC undergraduates receive grants or scholarships, and the average grant is larger than that annual fee, so for those students the fee is effectively already covered. Count only the students who pay out of pocket and the relief is about $3.1 million a year. The 27% grant rate is ACC district wide, not Pflugerville specific; “covered” is a simplification; loans are excluded, since a loan defers a cost rather than removing it.
Dual credit and Early College students already pay nothing. ACC's own Fall 2025 Fact Book counts 180 Pflugerville ISD dual credit students, and ACC waives tuition and fees for them entirely. Pflugerville's Early College High School students, roughly another 100, also pay nothing. Annexation buys these students no fee relief at all, yet they sit inside the enrollment count. On ACC's average load that is close to $0.9 million of the gross fee figure that was never real, which pushes the true benefit toward the low end, at or below $3 million.
ACC Free Tuition Pilot (classes of 2024 to 2028); ACC out of district fee of $201/credit hour; ACC Fall 2025 Fact Book for the 180 Pflugerville ISD dual credit students, whose tuition and fees ACC waives. Grant figures are from federal data (College Navigator basis): about 38% of first time, full time students receive federal grants averaging $6,608, and roughly 27% of all undergraduates receive grants or scholarships. Verify current figures against College Navigator data for ACC.
What it adds, whether you own or rent.
This is where the tax actually lands. By ACC's own figures, the average Pflugerville home is worth $407,524, and the new tax runs about $416 a year, or $34.67 a month, after the standard homestead exemption. Seniors and residents with disabilities pay less; property with no homestead exemption pays more. And every bill rises as appraisals rise.
| Homeowner | Per year | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Regular homestead | ≈ $416 | $34.67 |
| Senior or disabled | ≈ $339 | $28.25 |
| No homestead exemption (rentals, second homes) | ≈ $421 | $35.08 |
Renters aren't off the hook. The ACC tax lands on rental property the same as any other, at the full rate with no homestead exemption. Landlords generally pass higher property taxes through to tenants, so annexation reaches nearly every household in Pflugerville, owners and renters alike.
Figures are from ACC's own public hearing presentation on annexation, based on an average Pflugerville ISD home value of $407,524 at ACC's adopted rate of $0.1034 per $100. ACC offers a homestead exemption of $5,000 or 1% of value, whichever is greater, with larger exemptions for seniors and residents with disabilities. Rental property receives no such exemption, and the tax typically reaches tenants through rent.
The cost you don't see
You'll also pay it at the register.
The ACC tax doesn't stop at your own property line. Commercial property carries a heavier tax load than a home does, so a new tax hits local businesses hard, and businesses pass higher costs on to the people who shop with them.
Businesses are taxed on more
Commercial land is valued higher than homes to begin with, and a business is taxed not just on its building but on what is inside it: equipment, machinery, computers, furniture, and inventory. A new ACC rate lands on all of it, every year.
So their costs climb
That new yearly tax raises a business's operating costs. Shops and offices that rent their space feel it too, because landlords fold a higher tax bill straight into commercial rent.
And you pay the difference
To protect their margins, businesses build those costs into their prices. The result is a quiet local inflation: a little more on the goods you buy and the services you use here in Pflugerville.
It reaches every receipt. So the ACC tax can reach you twice: once on your own home or rent, and again as higher prices at the local businesses you rely on every week. Even a resident who owns no property and never takes a class still helps pay it.
In Texas, businesses are taxed on their business personal property, the equipment, inventory, and furnishings they use, on top of their real estate; homes are not taxed this way. Businesses commonly pass higher taxes and rents through to customers.
Everyone pays. Few benefit.
100% of property owners would be taxed. The residents who attend ACC and would see lower fees are a small share of the district's population, and the next three sections show why that share is very unlikely to grow.
Pflugerville area ACC enrollment, Fall 2025, against total PfISD population for 2026. Roughly 0.7% of residents are current ACC students. The figure above reflects current, direct beneficiaries.
Even free tuition hasn't grown ACC.
Supporters argue that waiving the out of district fee will bring in more Pflugerville students, growing the benefit. The record says otherwise. ACC enrollment tracks the economy and the pandemic, not tuition perks. Headcount fell hard from 2020 to 2022, then climbed back just as tuition went free, but that rebound only returned ACC to where it already stood over a decade ago.
| Fall term | Tuition | Headcount |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 (all time peak) | Paid | 45,100 |
| 2019 (before the pandemic) | Paid | 41,056 |
| 2022 (pandemic low) | Paid | 34,527 |
| 2025 (rebound) | Free in district | 43,891 |
A rebound, not new demand. The 2024 to 2025 climb recovers ground lost during the pandemic. Even with tuition 100% free, Fall 2025's 43,891 students still trail the 45,100 ACC enrolled back in 2011 and only just pass its 2012 level. That is more than a decade of essentially flat enrollment.
Why it matters for Pflugerville. Free tuition is a far bigger draw than a waived out of district fee, and even it could not push ACC past its early 2010s size. A narrow fee waiver, the only thing annexation actually buys, is very unlikely to raise Pflugerville's roughly 1,291 students. So the benefit stays near $3 million while the $23 million tax is permanent.
ACC Fact Book, district wide fall student headcount. Free in district tuition began in 2024. The 2020 to 2022 decline reflects pandemic era enrollment drops seen across community colleges.
Annexation has never driven enrollment.
Another argument for annexation is that joining ACC will pull more local residents into its classrooms, growing the benefit over time. If that were true, two decades of annexations would show it. They don't. ACC has absorbed community after community since 2004, yet enrollment barely moved. Six areas have been annexed into the ACC taxing district:
| Area annexed | Date |
|---|---|
| Del Valle ISD | May 2004 |
| City of Austin & Eanes ISD | May 2005 |
| Round Rock ISD | May 2008 |
| Elgin ISD & Hays ISD | Nov 2010 |
Only the 2008 Round Rock annexation produced a visible bump, and it faded within about four years. Across the whole stretch, ACC's growth badly lagged the region's:
Population, not annexation, filled the classrooms. Over those 19 years ACC's headcount grew about 1.2% a year while the Austin area grew more than twice as fast. Annexing Pflugerville won't change that pattern. It adds a large new tax without adding meaningfully to the small number of local students who benefit, so the roughly $3 million benefit would not grow.
ACC Fact Book, district wide fall headcount (29,004 in 2004; 35,600 in 2023, before free tuition began). Annexation dates from ACC records.
The taxes soared. The enrollment didn't.
Here is the same lesson in dollars. If a bigger tax base bought more students, ACC would be bursting. Instead, while the property taxes it collects climbed relentlessly, its headcount drifted flat and then down, on the same taxpayers, whether or not they or their neighbors ever set foot in a classroom.
| Year | ACC property taxes (M&O) | Fall headcount |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | $88.5 M | 40,248 |
| 2023 | $312.5 M | 35,600 |
| Change | +253% | −4,648 |
More money, fewer students. Between FY2011 and FY2026, ACC's projected property tax revenue climbs about $256 million (from $94.6M to $350.6M) while fall enrollment falls by roughly 1,200. More tax dollars did not buy more students, so they will not buy a bigger benefit for Pflugerville either. The roughly $3 million benefit stays put while the $23 million tax is permanent.
ACC Fact Book (fall headcount) and ACC adopted and projected maintenance and operations (M&O) property tax budgets. The per student figure is total M&O tax revenue divided by fall headcount.
Pflugerville rejected this in 2018.
The first annexation attempt failed at the ballot box over the same cost benefit concern. Pflugerville's taxable value has risen more than 80% since, so the tax burden today is larger than what voters already turned down.
| Measure | 2018 | Today |
|---|---|---|
| Average home value | $266,500 | ~$407,500 |
| Projected tax increase, average home | ~$269 | ~$416 |
| PfISD taxable value | $13.6 B | $24.8 B |
| Outcome | Rejected | On ballot |
Sources: 2018 election results (Community Impact) and ACC's 2018 announcement. Voters rejected annexation, with a projected median tax increase of $268.63.
The bottom line
Large, permanent cost. Small, narrow benefit.
No spin needed. $23 million for $3 million, paid by everyone, forever, is not a deal worth signing.