The city of Pflugerville will adopt its budget in September and a preliminary budget overview presented at the July 14 council meeting gave a sneak peek of what could be included.

City Manager Brandon Wade said the budget draft will include 13 new full- and part-time city positions and could also recommend projects that utilize reserve funding.

Wade said upcoming budget work sessions scheduled for July and August will include discussions about police and public works department funding.

“The police department was substantially underpaid comparatively speaking, and we have significant numbers of public works employees who, relatively speaking, are underpaid,” he said.

The budget passed in September may not be the final word, Wade said, because an Austin City Council challenge of Travis County property tax appraisals will delay cities in Travis County from setting the property tax rate until next fiscal year. Because of this, Pflugerville will have to build its budget around estimated revenue and amend the budget later if necessary, Wade said.

“It’s going throw everything we’ve got about a month behind on adoption of the tax rate,” he said. “That’s the circumstance that—to be quite frank—the city of Austin put us and other cities in this county in, and that’s the circumstance we have to live with.”

On September 22, Pflugerville will hold a public hearing on the budget draft where residents can voice their opinions before City Council approves the final document, Wade said.