2026 budget rounds out county financial picture
Published on December 10, 2025
The Weld County Board of Commissioners approved Weld County’s 2026 budget during Wednesday’s board meeting. The approval concludes the three-reading process, which started in November.
The budget, which has expenses of just under $703 million, was established using the same fiscally conservative strategies that have kept Weld County Government in excellent financial condition for decades. A key focus was to keep expenditures flat, offsetting any net county costs with a decrease in department budgets.
Some of the bigger goals outlined for the 2026 budget include funding public works’ capital improvement program to care for the county’s transportation infrastructure, meeting increased service demand by investing in employees, and funding the new judicial center expansion — all without increasing the county’s mill levy. In fact, approval of the 2026 budget included the setting of the mill levy at 15.956 – the same as it was set for 2025 and well below the state’s limit on what the county could collect of 22.038 mills.
The tax bill Weld County property owners will receive in January contains all of the taxing entities associated with that property, including school districts, library districts, fire districts, metro districts, etc. One of those entities is also Weld County’s property tax and a line for the temporary mill levy credit for your county property tax (the difference between the 22.038 mills the county could collect and the 15.956 mills the county is collecting).
Mill Levies and Assessment Rates - why are my property taxes higher? 2025 was a reassessment year for all property. Following two years of volatile shifts in Weld County’s assessed value, 2025’s overall assessed value remained relatively flat. The new value of $20.1 billion, accepted in November by the Weld County Board of Commissioners, represents a 2.5% increase from 2024’s assessed value of $19.6 billion. While Individual property values may have increased or decreased by more than 2.5%, historically the individual percent change aligned closely with the change in your property tax. However, this year an additional change specific to residential property will also affect your property taxes. If your overall tax bill increases more than you expected, it is likely due to HB24B-001 and SB24-233, which established different assessment rates between local government and school districts. Most of the tax increase will be seen on the school district assessment of property tax notices and does not go to the county to fund government. Although it may appear that school districts will receive more funding, their total amount remains the same. This change shifts the funding source by increasing the amount paid locally through property tax and decreases the school funding paid by the state.
The formula for calculating taxes is: property tax = actual value x statewide assessment rate x local mill levies. As of 2025, residential property has two assessment rates: 7.05% for school and 6.25% for all other local governments. For example:
Property Tax for schools = $500,000 x 7.05% x 47 school mills = $1,656.75
Property Tax for local govt = $500,000 x 6.25% x 50 local govt mills = $1,562.50
Total Tax = $3,219.25
For all other property, the assessment rate for schools and local governments is 27%.
To hear more from the county assessor on this increase, please watch the presentation from the Nov. 19 Weld County Board of Commissioners meeting (start at the 9:40 mark on the video).