Liberty Hill and ESD 4 agree to divvy up sales taxes in annexed areas
Liberty Hill and Emergency Services District 4 have come to an agreement on how to share sales taxes collected from areas annexed by the city.
Liberty Hill will receive a 1.35% sales tax on transactions in annexed areas, and ESD 4 will receive a .4% sales tax on those transactions, according to an interlocal agreement provided by Christian Kurtz, director of economic development for Liberty Hill.
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Liberty Hill and ESD 4 have overlapping boundaries and jurisdictions, according to the agreement. The city is located entirely within the ESD.
The city imposes a 1.75% sales tax within its limits, which is the same as the sales tax the ESD imposes in its jurisdiction, excluding areas included in the city limits, according to the agreement.
Texas Tax Code mandates that if the city annexes adjacent territory and extends municipal services to the annexed area, the sales taxes in that area would still be allocated to the ESD, according to the agreement.
Both the ESD and the city determined it was in the best interest of all involved to come to an agreement on how to share the tax dollars.
The agreement went into effect on Feb. 24.
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Leander to apply for $100K emergency drone program grant
Leander could receive three state-funded drones and training for 10 personnel after City Council approved an application submittal for a grant from Texas’s State Homeland Security Program.
Leander’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management is hoping to receive $100,000 from the 2025 state program to bring the drones and needed training to the city, according to agenda documents.
The two-minute impact
The drones would allow the homeland security and emergency management office to quickly assess situations and gather on-the-ground information for efficient coordination, according to the documents.
The drones would also support emergency operations in situations including search and rescues, damage assessments, floods and wildfires, according to the documents.
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Leander receives clean audit opinion on FY 2023-24 finances
The city of Leander’s finances for fiscal year 2023-24 were found by an independent auditor to have operated with no weaknesses or deficiencies.
At the Feb. 20 Leander City Council meeting, City Council voted to accept the audit, which found that general fund revenue for the city outpaced expenditures by $9.8 million, according to a presentation to council.
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Roger Tovar, an audit partner with Whitley Penn LLP, said the accounting firm did not examine all city transactions for the year; it focused on areas determined by a risk assessment conducted early in the audit process.
The audit was an evaluation of the reliability of financial statements, not an assessment of the city’s economic well-being, Tovar said. The highest rating a city’s finances could get would be an unmodified opinion.
“We did issue an unmodified opinion, again, that is the highest level of assurance that you can obtain on your financial statements, so what that means is that your financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects,” Tovar told council.
What else?
The audit considered fund balances as of Sept. 30.
When comparing the budget to actual expenses for the city’s general fund, Tovar said the city brought in more money than it expected to and spent less than it expected to.
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Leander updating water meter technology
Leander residents can expect to see city contractors working in their yards over the next few months as a survey is taken to determine which water meters need updating and which ones need replacing.
The city is in the process of installing water meters that will support electronic communications, enabling the city to operate more efficiently and conserve more water, Capital Improvements Program Manager Tony Bettis said at the Feb. 20 city council meeting.
The two-minute impact
Leander is ensuring that all water meters in the area are able to wirelessly send data to the city, and the process will require installing a minimum of 15 communication towers around town, Bettis said. Some of the towers will be built as 75-foot poles and others will be stationed on existing elevated water towers.
The process is expected to be complete around spring 2027.
Read more here.
