City budget calls for increase in taxes
Owner of a $1.1 million home would pay $21 more than in the current year.
Rollingwood residents with an average valued home of approximately $1.1 million will pay more than $21 in total city taxes than last year based on City Council action.
That action Sept. 20 entailed the City Council approving the budget and a tax rate of 20.89 cents per $100 of property valuation, which is slightly lower than the rate that could result in a rollback election, City Administrator Amber Lewis said.
The budget posted on the city’s website lists the adopted tax rate as higher than the effective tax rate of 18.79 cents per $100 of property value, which would create the same amount of funding as the last fiscal year. Last year’s tax rate was 20.02 cents per $100 of property value.
The budget is based on total revenue of approximately $5.54 million versus total expenditures of $5.32 million. The general fund revenue in the budget is approximately $2.48 million. Property taxes fund about $991,000 of the general fund budget, while sales taxes projected at about $544,857 fund 22 percent of the budget.
Lewis said in a Sept. 20 memo to the council that she is pleased to report that the rate covers “nearly all of the goals and priorities” of the council for the budget.
They include drainage improvements and development of a comprehensive drainage improvements plan; municipal complex expansion and improvements to City Hall and the Police Department; funds for technology and a more secure email system; sufficient funding for parks improvements and maintenance; significant hardware and software purchases to increase security in the Police Department; tree trimming services to prevent oak wilt and maintain trees in city parks; a rate study aimed at water fund solvency; rewriting of the city’s code of ordinances; legal services relating to South MoPac (Loop 1) project; and seal coat street improvements and Bee Cave Road improvements and related right-of-way acquisition.
A major new addition to the budget is the $300,000 allocation for City Hall and Police Department improvements, and Lewis later said that should include addressing a mold problem in the police facility.
“That’s definitely the goal of the council — to do it right, not just do something that temporarily fixes the issue . ... The council wants to look at solutions that work for the city for the next 30, 40 years.”
Another important new addition to the budget is the appropriation of a total of $100,000 for drainage improvements. Lewis said the logical first step will to select a firm to perform a study and collect data.
“They’ll do surveys, they’ll do modeling, and, of course, this will be up to a design proposal by the (selected) firm,” Lewis said, noting there will be plenty of public meetings in this process. “If we can do a citywide infrastructure (plan), we’ll see an economy-of-scale savings for the homeowner.”