Bastrop advances balanced budget with 2.5% staff raises

Bastrop City Council on Sept. 8 unanimously approved the first reading of the fiscal year 2026-27 budget and a no-new-revenue property tax rate of $0.5118 per $100 valuation.

The details
City Manager Sylvia Carrillo-Trevino presented the budget proposal with $74.57 million in revenue and $69.58 million in expenses across city funds.

It included a balanced $19.73 million General Fund and a 2.5% employee cost-of-living raise.

“I really want to stress to the residents how fiscally restrained this council is,” Carrillo-Trevino said. "There was 8 cents essentially available on the table that could have been taken by a simple vote at this council without going to the voters and [they] chose not to do that."

Put in perspective
Place 2 Council Member Cynthia Meyer addressed residents following Carrillo-Trevino's budget presentation, offering a summary.

"What Sylvia just said was we didn't go up on taxes, you're going to get a little bit more back—just a tiny [amount], but a little is better than going up—and a big thing is no services were increased," Meyer said. "So, try taking that to any other city around and seeing how that flies. It's a great day to live in Bastrop."

The bottom line
As previously reported, although the proposed no-new-revenue tax rate is $0.0078 higher, or about 1.55%, than the current rate of $0.5040, Carrillo-Trevino explained that the owner of a median-valued home would pay $35.86 less in city property taxes because the median taxable value declined.

What’s next
A second and final reading is set for Sept. 22; the fiscal year begins Oct. 1.