September was the end of budget season for cities across Texas. Here are the fiscal year 2024-25 budget highlights for Bee Cave, Lakeway, Rollingwood and West Lake Hills.

Bee Cave

The city’s tax rate for FY 2024-25 of $0.02 remains unchanged from the previous year. Some highlights of the budget include:
  • The city anticipated $13.96 million in sales tax revenue in FY 2024-25, a decrease from its $14.17 million projection in FY 2023-24.
  • The city's FY 2024-25 budget accounts for a 49.45% increase in legal fees compared to FY 2023-24 projections, largely due to the November proposition elections, city officials said.
  • There was a 10.69% increase in money allocated to parks in the FY 2024-25 budget compared to projections from the previous year.
  • 2024 total taxable value: $3.24 billion, 0.7% increase year over year


Lakeway

The new FY 2024-25 city tax rate of $0.1598 is a 10.97% increase year over year, which is expected to generate $1.97 million more for the city. Some highlights of the budget include:
  • City officials increased the homestead exemption for individuals over 65 from $25,000 to $50,000, resulting in $79.90 in savings for eligible households and an additional yearly tax burden of $21.61 on ineligible commercial and residential properties.
  • The city plans to receive roughly $577,000 less, or a 21% decline, in building and development services revenue in FY 2024-25 compared to the previous year's initial projections.
  • While the city’s general fund expenses for Administration and General Services declined 31% and 46%, respectively, some of those costs were added into the expenses in new line items, such as Communications and Human Resources.
  • 2024 total taxable value: $8.26 billion, 7.49% increase year over year


Rollingwood

The city adopted the no-new-revenue rate of $0.2058 for FY 2024-25, a 3.8% increase from FY 2023-24. Some highlights of the budget include:
  • The new tax rate is expected to generate $270,139 more for the city, a 9.09% increase from the previous fiscal year.
  • The city more than tripled the transfer from its street maintenance fund from $150,000 in FY 2023-24 to $494,311 in FY 2024-25.
  • Personnel expenses increased 62.24% from FY 2023-24 projections to FY 2024-25, growing to over $300,000.
  • 2024 total taxable value: $1.58 billion, 0.29% increase year over year


West Lake Hills

The city maintained its tax rate of $0.1786 per $100 valuation for the FY 2024-25 year but still anticipates raising $101,916 more in property tax revenue. Some highlights of the budget include:
  • The city general fund budget anticipates total revenues to rise to $8.34 million, a 4.62% increase over initial FY 2023-24 projections of $7.97 million.
  • The city expects to spend 65.73% more on capital outlay expenses in FY 2024-25 compared to the previous year, for a total of $298,248.
  • The city expects to spend 9.2% on payroll in FY 2024-25 compared to its initial budget projections for FY 2023-24.
  • 2024 total taxable value: $3.26 billion, 0.45% increase year over year