After about a day and a half of discussion, the Austin City Council adopted Sept. 10 its 2013-14 budget totaling about $3.3 billion with a property tax rate of 50.27 cents per $100 of valuation.
"I'm very proud of staff and the work they've done and also very proud of the council members for coming together and addressing this budget in a way that enables us to not only not increase the tax rate, which is where we were about 26 hours ago, but we actually reduced the tax rate [over last year's], but it's a significant milestone," said Mayor Lee Leffingwell.
The adopted tax rate is lower than the 2012-13 tax rate of 50.29 cents while the overall budget increased about $200 million. According to city staff, this tax rate is first reduction in since fiscal year 2009. The budget goes into effect Oct. 1.
On a median priced home—about $185,000—the tax bill from the city's rate will be about $931 a year or $77.56 per month, according to the city.
