The budget, accounting for a total of $74.1 million in expenses, added two new police officer positions as well as an emergency management coordinator, according to agenda documents.
The addition of the emergency management position comes after July 4 weekend flooding devastated parts of Liberty Hill and the surrounding area.
What you need to know
City Council also adopted a property tax rate of $0.469407 per $100 of assessed value for tax year 2025, which will fund the FY 2025-26 budget.
The adopted property tax rate equates to the no-new-revenue rate for the city, and it effectively is a decrease in the tax rate for taxpayers. The 2024 tax rate was $0.483029 per $100 of assessed property value, according to the city.
The city’s FY 2025-26 budget is broken down into nine major spending categories, with capital outlay being the largest at $29.5 million. Capital outlay funds are typically allocated toward capital projects, such as building improvements and other physical assets.
What they’re saying
Josh Armstrong, finance director for the city, said crafting the budget was a six-month process and noted staff was able to streamline the budget some by cutting unnecessary expenses.
Armstrong explained the considerations that went into writing the budget.
“This is a budget that was built around the no-new-revenue rate,” he said, noting City Council made it clear that using the no-new-revenue rate—the rate at which the same revenue as the year prior would be collected if applied to the same properties—was its preference.
Armstrong went on to say the city wasn’t able to budget for all the requests received, but his team was able to get most of the items that each department needed.
“There’s always going to be more needs than available resources,” he said.
