Hutto officials to consider $351M budget

“That is an astoundingly large number that says that this city is serious about investing in infrastructure,” Earp said.

The breakdown

The proposed budget includes $263.6 million in capital improvement projects. Of that, $23.3 million in cash would come from the general fund, park development fund, community benefit fees, coronavirus recovery dollars and transportation impact fees. The remainder would come from the city’s spending plan, and it’s likely the city would need to issue some of the remaining bond funding stemming from 2018.

By the numbers:

Of the proposed $263.6 million in CIP projects, the budget would allocate:

• $166 million for wastewater improvements
• $51.3 million in water projects
• $40.4 million in transportation projects
• $3.8 million in parks improvements
• $1.02 million in building and facility projects

City staff is proposing a property tax rate of $0.402114 per $100 valuation. For comparison, last year’s rate was $0.42198. If council were to adopt this rate, the average homeowner would see a reduction of $41 a year on their tax bill. However, property owners with homestead exemptions would see a slight increase in their annual bills. Broken down, changes to tax bills would look like:

• Property owners with homestead exemptions: increase of $74 a year on average
• Property owners without a homestead exemption: decrease of $488 a year on average

The first open session during which council will discuss the city budget is Aug. 17, followed by a meeting Aug. 24. Following discussions and additional workshops, council will vote to adopt a budget and tax rate in September. A full breakdown of the proposed budget for fiscal year 2023-24 can be found here.