All public budget and tax rate hearings and discussions will take place at the Williamson County Courthouse building, 710 Main St., Georgetown.[/caption]

A more than $282 million proposed budget for FY 2016-17 was presented to the Williamson County Commissioners Court at its Aug. 9 meeting.

The budget, which includes a recommended $172 million general fund, features capital projects and salary increases as well as a proposed more than $27 million road and bridge fund and a proposed debt services fund of more than $83 million.

The presented general fund budget also includes more than $563,000 for 11 full-time and 2 part-time positions, county Budget Officer Ashlie Koenig said.

In the FY 2015-16 budget the court voted to set aside $10 million to pay off debt. Commissioner Valerie Covey said this was something she would like to see again in the 2016-17 budget.

“One of my goals is to pay of the debt as quickly as possible. It saves us money [to pay off the debt early],” Covey said.

County Judge Dan Gattis, said that the county needs to think about using that $10 million dollars to secure land for future roads and rights-of-way, citing Austin as a cautionary tale of not taking action far enough in advance.

“Some court, some day is going to want to build those roads,” Gattis said.

Commissioner Lisa Birkman agreed road construction is something the court should consider in the future, but said she was not sure they were prepared to put money toward it right now.

Budget discussions, including setting a proposed property tax rate will continue over the next several weeks.

Larry Gaddes, chief deputy for the county tax assessor and collector’s office, also presented the effective tax rate to the Commissioners Court on Aug. 9.

The effective tax rate for FY 2016-17 is $0.446618 per $100 of property valuation, which is a decrease from the 2015 property tax rate of $0.481529 per $100 of property valuation.

Gaddes said that increasing property values have a lot to do with the decrease in the effective tax rate.

“The growth [in Williamson County] is steady, and it’s a lot of growth,” Gaddes said.

Commissioners will meet Aug. 16 to propose a maximum property tax rate. The amount set is the maximum rate that can be adopted by the commissioners on Sep. 13. Two public hearings on the property tax rate are also proposed for Aug. 30 and Sep. 6, which will be scheduled at the Aug. 16 meeting.

On Aug. 17 and 23, budget modification hearings will be held to allow commissioners to add and delete items from the budget before it is officially adopted on Aug. 30.