While the budget process is far from over, and the official tax rate won't be set until September 14, the city of Round Rock has made initial estimates at what the property tax rate will be for the coming year. A meeting today, Round Rock CFO Susan Morgan proposed setting the tax rate at 43 cents per $100 of property valuation for the 2017-18 fiscal year. This is lower than her initial proposal of 43.25 cents, which she adjusted following the certification of the tax rolls. Morgan said she needed to set the tax rate high enough to collect $53.7 million for the city's proposed budget. More than half of this amount, $34.2 million, will go to the general fund, and $19.5 million goes to repaying city debt. When the tax rolls were certified last Thursday, property values were higher than Morgan initially expected, allowing the city to set the tax rate lower. This 43 cent rate would still be a 6.7 percent increase from the effective tax rate. (The effective tax rate is the rate at which the city would collect the exact same revenue as the previous year, regardless of changes in property value.) Round Rock's total property value is $12.45 billion, an increase of a little more than 9 percent from the last year. The effective tax rate is 40.32 cents, which makes Morgan's newest proposal an increase of 2.7 cents. The majority of this increase—2.1 cents—comes from voter-approved bond projects. On Aug. 10, City Council will set a tax rate ceiling and the dates for subsequent hearings on the matter. As of now, the council will review the budget at an Aug. 22 meeting; have public hearings on the tax rate on Aug. 24 and 31; have a public hearing on the budget on Aug. 24 and pass the budget and tax rate on Sept. 14.