Rollingwood City Council met Wednesday evening for a budget workshop and its August council meeting.

Council discussed budget at workshop

City Council reviewed the proposed fiscal year 2017-18 budget, which estimates general fund revenues for the fiscal year as $2,597,845 and expenditures as $2,397,275.

City Administrator Amber Lewis said $25,000 was budgeted to create a capital improvement plan to track drainage problems in the city, and an additional $55,000 will go to drainage improvements that are currently under design.

A total of $300,000 is budgeted for city hall and police department renovations that would create additional office space for government use and police storage, she said.

The city budgeted $30,000 for street marking over the next year to add wider shoulders to roads and slow area traffic. An initial street-marking project was completed earlier this month, and Police Chief Dayne Pryor said feedback has been positive.

“Traffic has slowed down considerably because people are focused on staying in the center of the lane,” he said. “I would like to see the program expanded.”

The city has also budgeted $18,000 to purchase a pickup truck for code enforcement, Lewis said.

A public hearing on the budget is set for Sept. 6 at 7 p.m.

Proposed tax rate set at rollback rate

City Council set the proposed tax rate at $0.2089 per $100 of valuation for fiscal year 2017-18, an increase from the current tax rate of $0.2002 per $100 of valuation. The figure represents the rollback rate, which is the highest amount a city can increase the tax rate before taxpayers can challenge it, Lewis said.

The official 2017-18 tax rate will be set at a meeting Sept. 20, and City Council can choose to set the tax rate at or below the proposed rate, she said. By setting the proposed rate at the rollback rate, City Council is given more flexibility when finalizing the budget, she said.

The rollback rate would generate about $72,000 more tax revenue for the city than the effective tax rate of $0.1879 per $100 of valuation, Lewis said.

City Council also scheduled public hearings on the tax rate on Sept. 6 and Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.