City Manager Scott Sellers unveiled a $134.2 million proposed city budget today that recommends a 4 percent reduction in the property tax rate but increases water and wastewater rates by 10 percent.
However, even with the proposed reduction in the property tax rate from $.5416 per $100 valuation to $.5201, the average homeowner will pay about $100 more in property taxes to the city in 2021 than they paid this year because of an average 8.5 percent increase in property valuations. According to the budget figures presented, 20 percent of an individual’s total property tax bill will go the city, while more than twice that amount — 53 percent — will to the Hays Consolidated School District, and 14 percent will go to Hays County. The remaining 13 percent is divided among several smaller taxing authorities.
The water rate increase projects to $7.28-per-month in the average water bill and the wastewater fee hike will mean an average monthly increase of $4.28 in that bill, Sellers told the city council in his presentation of his proposed budget.
The budget is now in the hands of the city council that can juggle any of the funds before it has to be approved on the second reading of the budget ordinance Aug. 25. The council will also have the opportunity to offer additional budget amendments at a meeting scheduled for Aug. 18, during which time they will also vote on first reading of the ordinance.
A slight majority of the total budget — 57 percent — is devoted to capital improvement projects and 30.5 percent of those capital improvement expenditures will be devoted to two items, a proposed Public Safety Center that’s dependent on voter approval in November, and the expansion of the city’s wastewater treatment plant from a capacity of 3 to 4.5 million gallons per day.
“The council has made it very clear over the course of the last several years that this (capital improvement projects) is a priority and we have heard that loud and clear,” Sellers said.
Where the individual council members — particularly Mayor Travis Mitchell — seemed to have the most concern was the $1.3 million side aside for the establishment of 25 new positions while, at the same time, no merit increases were proposed for current employees, except for police officers, whose union-negotiated contract guarantees them a 7.3 percent pay increase this year. Mitchell suggested eliminating several new positions that would allow for an overall 2 percent merit pay increase for non-uniformed city employees.
“We’ve reduced economic development’s budget, which I’m always hesitant to do because economic development drives a lot of our future revenues,” Mitchell said. “What I want to know is whether it is appropriate and wise to add some of these (new positions) that arguably could be delayed. Is it appropriate to add this many new positions while not doing merit increases this year? In my mind there are ways we can change these new positions presented here in order to create a margin that we need to allow for the merit increases to back into the budget.”
Several council members said instead of creating new positions in the Parks and Public Works Department, it might be more beneficial to the city to add positions to the Communications Department.
Following a lunch break the council voted to eliminate five of the proposed 25 new positions along with equipment that accompanied those positions and use those savings for two new positions for the Communications Department, adding $10,000 to the Economic Development Department’s advertising budget and a 2 percent merit pay increase for all civilian employees below the level of the department heads.
The presentation of the annual budget, which usually begins around 8 a.m. on the first Saturday of August, was delayed two hours this time around because the council decided to conduct a closed-door executive session to discuss the proposed new Public Safety Center.
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