Lakeway City Council approved the $19.65 million fiscal year 2023-24 budget and a new higher tax rate of $0.144 during a Sept. 18 meeting.
How we got here
The new budget includes a 6% increase in expenditures from last year and provisions for seven new city employees, additional employee benefits and increased police funding.
City Manager Joseph Molis said the increased property tax rate was inevitable with ongoing inflation and the expenses of the February winter storm, which cost the city $1.5 million in damages.
What residents should know
With the newly adopted tax rate, a Lakeway homeowner with an average home value $779,247 can expect to pay $211 more in property taxes for 2024 than the previous year, according to city officials.
Though the new tax rate of $0.144 per $100 valuation marks an increase from last year's rate of $0.129, it is still lower than the tax rates for the prior 10 years.
The breakdown
The largest portions of the $19.65 million budget include:
- Police: $7.67 million
- Parks: $2.01 million
- Development: $2.26 million
- Administration: $1.56 million
- General services: $1.55 million
The budget provisions include:
- Five new police department positions, including a motor officer, a victim services advocate, two dispatchers and an administrative assistant
- A new district county clerk and assistant manager for the Lakeway Activity Center
- A 3% merit increase for city employees
- A police department corporeal stipend
- Police department recruiting incentives
"I think we have to be prepared for everything to go to hell all at once and have another emergency," Mayor Thomas Kilgore said.
What's next?
The FY 2023-24 budget will go into effect Oct. 1.
