Leander City Council approved a $199 million budget for fiscal year 2020-21, which features 23 new positions, funding for critical water infrastructure projects and capital improvement projects.

The general fund increased by 8.7% from FY 2019-20. The total budget increased by 17%.

The budget includes 23 new positions for the engineering, finance, planning and other departments. City staff also presented council two options for unallocated general fund money; council chose to fund the mid-year hires of four police officers and four firefighters.

Council also approved a tax rate of $0.536867 per $100 valuation.

Based on an average Leander home value of $327,498, the average Leander homeowner would pay $1,758.23 for FY 2020-21.

This is a $0.41 increase from the average property tax payment last year. This is a result of rising home values coupled with the lower tax rate.

Mayor Troy Hill said this is the seventh year of property tax rate decreases for Leander homeowners. He said the decrease is not as much as the city would have liked, but the trend is continuing.

“Over seven years, it’s added up quite a bit for homeowners,” Hill said.