Council raises tax rate by half a cent

Members also adopt city’s 2016 fiscal budget, totaling $114,309,432.

The Pflugerville City Council has approved the tax rate and budget for fiscal year 2016.

The council on Sept. 29 set the tax rate at 54.05 cents per $100 valuation. The rate is the same one council members initially approved as the maximum tax rate at a Sept. 8 meeting to give them flexibility to come back and set the final tax rate.

The new tax rate is roughly a halfcent increase from last fiscal year’s tax rate of 53.36 cents per $100 valuation, city officials said.

“The City Council has worked to lower the tax rate more than 10.5 cents per $100 (valuation) over the last 11 consecutive years, and we are proud to have offered savings to our residents,” said Mayor Jeff Coleman in a news release. “Last year when the voters approved $53 million in bonds to improve parks and roads, we told them it would likely increase their property tax rate by 2cents.

“(The) vote has shown that even with conservative budgeting there was a need for additional revenue, and therefore a property tax rate increase was appropriate,” Coleman said.

A resident with the average home value of $187,672 will pay $1,014 to the city in property taxes at the new rate, city officials said. Last year, a resident with an average home value of $187,672 paid $1,001 in property taxes.

The fiscal year 2016 budget was also adopted, totaling $114,309,432.

The general fund totals over $28 million and the utility fund is over $49.9 million, which are slight increases from the proposed budget.

The council set aside $7.4 million to pay off debt $28.8 million to fund capital improvements projects. Those figures remain the same as in the proposed budget.

Additional city staffing positions included in the budget are a utility systems worker, water treatment plant operators, a marketing specialist, 911 operator, dispatcher, kennel technicians, part-time animal control officers, police officers and a parttime victim services assistant.

The city will also expand parks and library services in the new budget.