What the Natomas and Rocklin school bonds add to your tax bill

Buy the typical house in Natomas Park this fall and Measure D would cost you about $353 a year. That is $59.38 for every $100,000 of assessed value, the average rate in the county's tax rate statement, applied to the roughly $595,000 Houseberry's price data puts on the neighborhood in its September 2026 update. The bill would run through the 2053-54 tax year.

Natomas Unified's $300 million bond is one of six school and college bonds on Sacramento-area ballots on November 3. Our regional ballot roundup listed all six. This post is the tax bill. For each one we pulled the official tax rate statement, set it against a real neighborhood price, and checked what the district already charges. Each needs 55 percent to pass.

What each one costs on a real house

The rate is the easy part. It applies to assessed value, the number on your tax bill, which under Proposition 13 starts at your purchase price and can rise no more than 2 percent a year. A recent buyer pays close to the full market figure. Someone who bought in 2012 pays on far less.

So the chart uses Houseberry's typical prices from the September 2026 update, which is about what a buyer this fall would be assessed at.

Rocklin's bill is highest because Rocklin's houses cost the most. Whitney Ranch, first of 19 neighborhoods on our Rocklin rankings, has a typical price of $710,000 in Houseberry data. At $59 per $100,000, that is about $419 a year. Sunset Whitney, at $665,000, comes to about $392.

Galt is the cheapest of the six. Its high school district asks for $29.62 on average, and the typical home in the city is about $527,000, according to Houseberry. That works out to roughly $156. In Winters, where Houseberry's typical price is $627,000, Measure B's $49 rate means about $307.

Center Joint Unified is the one we cannot price neighborhood by neighborhood. The district covers Antelope and the Placer Vineyards area on the Sacramento-Placer line, and Houseberry scores six Antelope neighborhoods but does not yet carry a typical price for them. At $54.94, every $500,000 of assessed value costs about $275 a year.

The rate is the small number

Here is the figure we would read first on any of these six ballots: the last year. The tax rate statement is the short county document printed with each measure in the Sacramento County voter guide, and it has to say when the levy is expected to end and how much will be paid in total.

Center Joint Unified's ends in 2068-69. That is more than four decades of payments. The district borrows $197 million and expects to pay back about $516.7 million, $2.62 for every dollar. Natomas Unified borrows $300 million and expects to repay $599.9 million, about $2 per dollar, over 27 years. Galt's ratio is $2.17. Los Rios lands at about $1.63.

Add up the four measures on Sacramento County ballots and the districts would borrow $1.64 billion and repay about $3 billion. Long bonds are normal for buildings that last 50 years. A homeowner should still know that a child starting kindergarten in Antelope next year would be about 47 when Measure E's last payment is due.

Will the total rate go up?

Every campaign says no. The ballot question for Rocklin says "no projected tax rate increase." The argument for Natomas says Measure D "will not raise your tax rate." Los Rios promises "no increase in tax rates" in its ballot title. The idea is that the new levy replaces older bonds as they are paid off.

The county's own figures show what is already on the bill. For 2025-26, Sacramento County's voter-approved debt rate schedule lists Natomas Unified at $121.60 per $100,000 and Los Rios at $20.80. Center Joint Unified is at $98.20. Galt Joint Union High is at $52.70, and the separate Galt elementary district adds $71.50, including the $27 million bond voters passed in 2024.

On a $595,000 Natomas Park assessment, the Natomas and Los Rios bonds already sold cost about $847 a year. Measures D and H would add about $452 at their average rates if none of that older debt shrank.

It will shrink. SaccoNews, reading the district's audit, found that most of Natomas Unified's refinancing debt, $77.30 of today's rate, pays off between 2030 and 2035. The catch is timing. The county statement expects Measure D's top rate of $60 to arrive first, in 2027-28.

We read "no tax rate increase" as a projection, not a promise. Tax rate statements are estimates, and the real rate each year depends on when Natomas Unified sells its bonds and how fast Sacramento County's assessed values grow. Over the 27 years of Measure D the campaign may well be right. In 2027-28, the bill can run ahead of it.

Who would vote on what

Natomas Unified covers North Natomas and parts of South Natomas. Its list includes replacing portable classrooms, new plumbing and fire safety equipment. No one filed a ballot argument against D, E or G.

Rocklin's district says the bond would make it eligible for about $82 million in state matching money, and its 2024 facilities plan put repair needs above $300 million, according to the district. Two of its schools, Parker Whitney and Rocklin Elementary, are more than 60 years old, Abridged reported.

Measure H is the odd one. Only a Los Rios subdistrict in Sacramento and Yolo counties votes on it and pays it. The project list runs across American River, Cosumnes River, Folsom Lake and Sacramento City colleges.

If you are shopping for a house in any of these districts, the dollar amounts on the seller's tax bill will not be yours. Your bill starts at your price. Before November 3, see how Natomas Park and the rest of the city compare on our Sacramento neighborhood rankings, and run the rate times the price you would actually pay.

Sources

• Sacramento County Voter Registration and Elections, current measure information, November 3, 2026
• Sacramento County Auditor-Controller, voter-approved debt rates, 2025-26
• Placer County Elections, measures to appear on the November 3, 2026 ballot
• Yolo County Elections, local measures
• Rocklin Unified School District, facilities planning and Measure D
• Abridged, Sacramento-area school bond measures, October 21, 2026
• SaccoNews, Measure D's no tax rate increase pitch, checked