Approval came during City Council's Aug. 24 meeting following extended debate over how to achieve the lowest rate possible.
Heading into the meeting, city staff had proposed a rate of $0.497 per $100 of valuation, which broke down to $0.2974 for maintenance and operations and $0.1996 for the debt service, or the interest and sinking portion of the rate.
City Manager Sereniah Breland said the eleventh-hour rate change resulted in savings for the average Pflugerville homeowner—whose property would be valued at $282,434 in 2021—of about $118 for the year over the proposed rate of $0.497.
"Divided by 12 [months], that calculates ... to $9.83," Breland said.
In other words, the approved rate of $0.4863 is 2.2% lower than the initial proposed rate of $0.497, which would have translated to a total tax of $1,403.70 on an average homestead, according to information from the city.
Put another way, the average homeowner in Pflugerville is now projected to pay $1,373.48 for a 9.4% change over the previous year due to an overall increase in the city's total property valuation.
Pflugerville Finance Director Melissa Moore said the 2021 certified appraisal of all properties has been valued at about $7.185 billion. Moore also explained the percentage increase in the overall tax levy for the coming fiscal year versus the current, even though the two rates are the same.
"When you take your no-new-revenue rate of $0.4504 and compare it to the adopted proposed new rate of $0.4863, that represents an 8% increase," Moore said. "That is the required language to adopt this tax rate, even though the rate is remaining flat."
The no-new-revenue rate, a relatively new requirement from the state for city governments to calculate, is the tax rate at which no new tax revenue would come in to a taxing entity without calculating new property valuation, Moore said, adding the initial proposed rate would have amounted to a 10.3% increase.
