Georgetown homeowners could see an increase on their property tax bills in 2016.

City Council approved the first reading of the city’s fiscal year 2015-16 budget and property tax rate during its Aug. 25 meeting, and as of press time council was expected to approve the final reading Sept. 8.

Council members voted to keep the proposed rate at $0.434 cents per $100 property valuation for FY 2015-16—the same rate that was set for FY 2014-15.

Although the rate is the same as the previous fiscal year’s rate, the rate is higher than the effective rate of $0.41715 per $100 property valuation, Chief Financial Officer Micki Rundell said. The effective rate is the rate that would generate the same amount of money as the previous fiscal year.

With the average home value increasing 10.3 percent from $223,822 in 2014 to $246,986 in 2015 the average tax bill is expected to increase by $92.14, Rundell said.
City Manager David Morgan had presented a tax rate of $0.44195, which would have increased the average tax bill by $110.81, he said.

Council Member Tommy Gonzalez made a motion to use nearly $300,000 from City Council’s special reserve fund to keep the tax rate at its current level, which the council approved. The reserve fund is about $515,000 of projected excess funds from the FY 2014-15 budget, Morgan said.

The city’s total assessed value increased 11.2 percent to $5.9 billion compared with 2014, Rundell said. The increase includes $203 million in new and annexed property.

Homeowners age 65 and older qualify for a property tax exemption that caps their property values. The number of properties that qualify for the exemption rose to 33.3 percent, she said.

Property taxes account for 22.3 percent of the city’s proposed $53.7 million general fund budget, which serves as the city’s operating budget, Rundell said.

The city’s total budget is $282.8 million, which is an increase of about 23 percent compared with FY 2014-15.

The proposed FY 2015-16 budget includes several new full- and part-time positions as well as a master plan for the Georgetown Animal Shelter, and a citizens and employee survey, she said. The budget also includes funding for the new city-operated emergency medical services program.

Georgetown resident Terry Putnam spoke against the increased budget during the Aug. 11 public hearing.

“The budget has increased 60 percent in the last four years. … That’s mind-boggling,” he said.
Putnam argued the city’s budget should follow the same policy as the state of Texas policy, which says the budget should not grow more than the population plus inflation.

Rundell said some of the increases to the budget include the issuance of $11.7 million in bonds for the first phase of the road bond approved by voters in May, which will fund the construction of the Southwest Bypass and the Wolf Ranch Parkway extension as well as the first phase of San Gabriel Park improvements. Another $10 million is expected to be issued in May to complete the funding for the road projects.

“Most of the increase is in capital improvement projects, including the Downtown West [civic center] and the Austin Avenue bridges,” Rundell said. “Contingency reserves have also increased to $22 million because the budget has increased.”

Morgan said the budget helps fund projects related to the city’s growth. The U.S. Census Bureau named Georgetown the second-fastest growing city with a population of 50,000 or more in the United States in May. Morgan said about 11.4 people a day moved to Georgetown between July 2013 and July 2014.

“This budget was developed in the context that we have a lot of work in progress over the next few years,” Morgan told the council. “We also recognized that we have significant impacts that have to be considered as a part of this budget, [including] managing the growth impacts we are experiencing in Georgetown and plan to experience over the next several years.”