Episode 1: You Moved to Katy to Save Money. You Didn't.

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When you buy a new build in Katy, Sugar Land, or Pearland, the property tax rate your realtor quoted is roughly half the story. The other half is the MUD — a Municipal Utility District, controlled by your developer for the first decade, that issues its own bonds, levies its own tax, and adds anywhere from $0.25 to over $1.00 per $100 to your annual bill. The disclosure you sign is required by state law and almost never read. The board you'd vote for in a “MUD election” is almost always running unopposed, with the developer's lot-owner employees casting the only votes. The infrastructure being paid off is the road and water line that runs to your house — except you're financing it twice: once in the home price, once in the tax bill. None of this is illegal, hidden, or unusual. It's how Texas builds new neighborhoods. This episode walks through how MUDs work — the legal mechanism, the board structure, the bond math — and why understanding it before you sign is the difference between a surprise and a choice.

What you'll be able to do after this episode

By the end of the episode, a listener should be able to:

• Read a §5.014 MUD notice on a closing packet and translate it into dollars.
• Distinguish a MUD's M&O rate (operations, drops as district matures) from its debt-service rate (locked-in for 20–30 years of bond amortization).
• Know one question to ask their realtor before signing: “What is this MUD's current debt-service rate, when does the latest bond mature, and is the board still developer-controlled?”

This episode is part of a literacy arc. The mission: anyone who votes on property taxes — directly or through their representation — should be able to explain how those taxes work. This is the walk-through.