MUD District???? (Austin, Anderson Mill, Anderson: neighborhoods, buyers, utilities)

[Southern Phoenician]

The newby that I am, I'm very confused over this MUD district thing. What's the deal with that and why are some areas in the MUD district and not others? What exactly does that do to property taxes (can they raise it without a vote?). Are there good areas in NW Austin NOT in the MUD district?

TIA!!!!

[gigi927]

This FAQ from the Anderson Mill MUD will probably answer a lot of questions for you. There are different MUDs for different neighborhoods. All have the power to levy taxes to help pay for critical services that the MUD provides. Some MUDs are better than others. I've heard some really horrible things about some Austin MUDs - corruption and mismanagement, etc. The MUD in our neighborhood is fantastic and has won several state awards for management. And, they keep reducing their portion of our property taxes instead of raising them, so we are big fans!

WhatisMUD

[HappyTexan]

MUD = Municipal Utility District.

Subdivisions that do not get their water from the city have MUDS that were created by the developer to bring water and wastewater utilities to the subdivisions. This was usually because the subdivision was outside the city limits. The debt from creating the utility infrastructure was passed on to the buyers to pay off. The MUD rates usually decline over time as the subdivision gets built out.

They have elected board of directors that manage it. There's also some other items they manage as well like parklands within the MUD.

The norm is: inside the city limits is city water, outside the city limits (rural) you have a well or private water (pay the water company directly), outside the city limits (subdivision) you probably have a MUD.

[texastea]

A lot of times, a subdivision with a MUD will get annexed by a nearby city and will have to pay taxes to both. This happened to Blockhouse Creek and the MUD taxes haven't gone down:

http://www.wcad.org/2007%20TAX%20RATE.pdf (broken link)