All posts · Public finance · Economic development · Applied analysis · Program evaluation · Hays County series
A five-part series on Hays County — its growth, its water, its public finance, and the institutions trying to govern a place that tripled in population in 25 years.
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If you drive south from Austin on I-35, you can feel the moment you cross into Hays County. Not because of a sign — though there is one — but because the landscape opens up. New subdivisions in various stages of completion. Warehouse pads with fresh concrete. A strip center waiting for tenants. The feeling of a place in motion — growing into something, and doing it quickly.
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Hays County has roughly 300,000 people today. How many will it have in 2040? In 2060?
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The previous two posts looked at how fast Hays County is growing and at the range of forecasts for how big it might get. Both ended on the same question that nobody in the county can dodge for much longer. Where will the water come from?
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Hays CISD voters approved $968.65 million in school bonds in May 2025. Six months later, the same district asked them to raise the operating tax rate by 12 cents per $100 of valuation. They said no — 60 percent to 40 percent.
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A typical homeowner in Hays County is governed by Hays County, Hays CISD, the city they live in (or, if unincorporated, no city at all), an Emergency Services District, possibly a Municipal Utility District or Water Control and Improvement District, the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District or Edwards Aquifer Authority, a river authority (GBRA or LCRA), the Hays Central Appraisal District, and — for most subdivisions built since 2000 — a homeowners association.