Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt delivers her quarterly report Aug. 23 and discusses budget planning.[/caption] Travis County Commissioners Court approved a budget of $1,004,038,708 and its tax rate Tuesday for fiscal year 2016-17. Votes to approve the budget and tax rate were unanimous, with Commissioner Ron Davis absent. The budget’s general fund pays for general operations and activities and totals $701 million for FY 2017. Overall, the budget is 3.79 percent bigger than last year’s. The county pays for expenditures, including county staff salaries, criminal and civil and family courts services, support for the justice system, health and human services, and economic development initiatives. Tax rate The county has worked on “holding the line” for its FY 2017 property tax rate of 38.38 cents per $100 of valuation, Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said. Even though the average taxable homestead value is expected to grow by about 8.65 percent, tax bills should remain roughly the same based on the new tax rate of 38.38 cents, according to the county. “For three years in a row we have been able to lighten the load of taxpayers even as the appraised value of their homes has gone up significantly,” Eckhardt said. The vote will result in a tax rate made up of two parts: 32.22 cents per $100 of valuation for maintenance and operations, and 6.16 cents per $100 of valuation for debt services. The FY 2015-16 adopted tax rate was 41.69 cents per $100 of taxable value. A homeowner with a home valued at $381,442—or a taxable value of $285,152 after exemptions—will see a decrease of about 4 cents on their average county tax bill year-on-year and a decrease of about $6 compared with fiscal year 2013-14's county tax bill, according to Jessica Rio, county executive, planning and budget.