Where Baytown's Local Sales Taxes Go: Four Small Slices, Four Jobs

Spend $100 in Baytown and the sales tax is $8.25. The state takes $6.25. The rest, $2.00, stays local, and four slices of it have a named job: crime control, fire and EMS, development and street repair.

Two slices are one-eighth of one percent. One is one-quarter of a cent. One is one-half of one percent. All sales taxes together brought in $35,133,989 for the city in FY2025. Here is what each slice is, what it pays for and where it shows up in the books.

The short version

• Crime Control and Prevention District (CCPD): one-eighth of one percent.
• Fire Control Prevention and EMS District (FCPEMSD): one-eighth of one percent.
• Municipal Development District (MDD): one-half of one percent, in the part of the city inside Harris County.
• Street maintenance: a voter-approved 1/4-cent tax.
• All sales taxes across city funds brought in $35,133,989 in FY2025, up from $33,675,244 in FY2024.

What you pay at the register

The Texas Comptroller lists Baytown's total sales tax rate at 8.25%, in both the Harris County and Chambers County listings. That is the 6.25% state rate plus 2% local, the most Texas allows. The Comptroller shows the city's own rate at 1.25% (which fits a 1% base plus the street quarter-cent). Crime control (0.125%), fire and EMS (0.125%) and the development district (0.5%) are listed as separate local entries. Added together, the local pieces come to the 2% cap.

The fractions sound small, so here they are in dollars. On a $100 purchase, one-eighth of one percent is 12.5 cents. One-half of one percent is 50 cents. A 1/4-cent tax is 25 cents. The four named slices add up to $1 on each $100 spent where all four apply. The other dollar of the local 2% is the city's base sales tax for general city services, which feeds the General Fund.

Say a household spends $200 in Baytown in a month. The crime control tax takes 25 cents, the fire and EMS tax takes 25 cents, the development tax takes $1.00 and the street tax takes 50 cents. That counts only the four named taxes.

Crime control: CCPD

The Crime Control and Prevention District is funded by a local sales and use tax at a rate of one-eighth of one percent. That is 12.5 cents on $100. It exists to pay for crime control and prevention.

On the staffing side, the FY2025 General Fund lists 174 police officers and 65 civilians. The report's line is a General Fund count of full-time-equivalent positions, not a count of sworn officers. The FY2027 budget lists 235 positions in the police department. Positions paid from other funds, such as CCPD, were not added up here.

Fire and EMS: FCPEMSD

The Fire Control Prevention and EMS District is dedicated to fire safety and emergency medical services. It is also funded at one-eighth of one percent. The FY2025 General Fund lists 163 firefighters and officers.

Development: MDD

The Municipal Development District has the highest rate of the four. Its sales tax is one-half of one percent, and it finances economic development. The city's financial report says the district's boundaries include only the part of the city in Harris County. That matters because a slice of Baytown lies in Chambers County.

Streets: the 1/4-cent tax

Voters approved a 1/4-cent sales tax for street maintenance, kept in the Street Maintenance Fund. The FY2027 adopted budget, which took effect October 1, 2026, shows $6.5 million in revenue and $4.9 million in spending for that fund. Street maintenance taxes in Texas come back to voters for renewal on a set schedule, so the vote date matters. The documents reviewed do not give it.

How it adds up

Sales tax grew from FY2024 to FY2025. The $35,133,989 for FY2025 is $1,458,745 more than the $33,675,244 of FY2024, about 4.3%.

Not all of it goes to the General Fund. The General Fund's own sales tax line was $23,104,178 in FY2025, about two-thirds of the all-funds total. The FY2027 budget expects $25,593,682, before rebates. The difference, about $12.0 million, is the part of the all-funds total outside that General Fund line. At the Census Bureau's estimate of 86,561 residents, the all-funds total works out to roughly $406 a resident, though visitors and workers also shop in town.

The financial report describes each district in its notes. The FY2027 adopted budget describes the street tax on its street maintenance pages. To follow one tax, start with the district's description and then find its fund in the budget.

The police department's FY2027 budget also lists a police communications unit with 27 positions and another police unit with 3. Emergency Management has 2. These are General Fund counts and do not show district-paid staff.

What this means for you

Each time you shop in Baytown, part of your 8.25% goes to a named purpose. To see how a district spends its money, look for its line in the city's yearly budget and financial report. A fair question to ask: how does each district's spending compare with what it raises?

Sources

• Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts: Sales and Use Tax Rates by City (https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/sales/city.php)
• City of Baytown: Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 (https://baytown.org/Archive.aspx?ADID=1317)
• City of Baytown: FY2027 Adopted Budget (https://baytown.org/Archive.aspx?ADID=1317)
• Handbook of Texas: Baytown, TX (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/baytown-tx)
• U.S. Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/baytowncitytexas/PST045225