Flower Mound town leaders have released the proposed fiscal year 2023-24 budget, along with a lower proposed tax rate.

The budget and tax rate are scheduled for a council vote Sept. 18. A budget workshop will be held Aug. 17, and a public hearing will be Aug. 21.

The specifics

The town’s proposed budget was released to the public this week and is available online. Town Manager James Childers said council ultimately makes decisions on funding and the tax rate.

“This budget will raise more revenue from property taxes than last year’s budget by an amount of $2,887,950, which is a 4.91% increase from last year’s budget,” the town's budget statement states. “Of that amount, $1,527,586 is tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year.”

The budget information statement also notes that the proposed budget includes increasing the homestead exemption from 10% to 12.5%, increasing the over 65 years/disabled exemption from $100,000 to $150,000, and lowering the town’s property tax rate to $0.3873; last year’s tax rate was $0.405. In addition, the proposed budget includes maintaining reserve levels per financial policies, providing an equitable compensation plan for town employees, continuing capital improvements, maintaining infrastructure, providing quality municipal facilities and parks, and using additional funding from excess fund balance for one-time decision packages to allow flexibility in future years.

The approach

“We’re very fortunate—we’re a community that has a strong tax base,” Childers said in an interview in mid-July. “We’re a community that, even though it’s kind of plateauing, we have strong sales tax. We’re in good shape compared to a lot of other communities. The budget process is tough every year because you have more needs than you have available funds.

“But I certainly appreciate going into the process and where we are financially as opposed to other years where things are leaner or you have to make tougher decisions or you’re losing revenue or things of that nature, so in that sense it’s been good going into this process.”

By the numbers

• Personnel comprises about 68%-69% of the general fund budget. Utility funds make up about 56%-57% of the total budget.
• The general fund in the proposed budget revenue right now is $92.6 million. Expenditures are $88 million.
• Because of a few mid-year budget amendments, the current FY 2022-23 general fund expenditure budget is about $90.62 million.
• Utility Fund revenue is $58.1 million of the budget, while expenditures are $55.4 million.
• Total revenues are $206.1 million, while expenditures are $208.1 million, which leaves a near $2 million difference.

“The majority of the difference is related to spending balances that have been previously collected in the dedicated sales tax funds for capital projects,” according to the proposed budget that was posted July 31.

The proposed budget is balanced, as ongoing revenues are more than ongoing expenditures, said Melissa Demmitt, communications director for the town. The special revenue funds are intended to collect revenue one year to be spent in future years. The budget for the expenditure in special revenue accounts does not typically occur the same year as the revenue was collected.

Zooming in

In prioritizing budget needs as far as personnel costs, Childers said staff tries to ensure that the town is up to speed with the market relative to employee compensation, and a market study was conducted this year to ensure that Flower Mound is competitive with other cities. Some positions are hard to fill in town, he added.

“We just want to make sure that, one, we’re in a position to retain the good employees that we have but also in a position to recruit,” he said.

He said some positions will be added to the Town Hall.

“We did a reorganization a few weeks ago, and we’re building our strategic portfolio here in the [administration] department, and so we’re going to bring on a couple of management analysts and flesh out a strategic services decision,” he said, explaining that these people will overlook such areas as measurements, improvements and innovation projects, and make sure the town adheres to strategic plans and objectives.

Across the board, though, there are departments that will need personnel, he said, but there are some other positions that could be added to human resources and finance departments.

“There’s going to be a smattering of positions across the organization, but there are not any that I would call quote-unquote sexy positions,” Childers said, noting that these are jobs needed to get daily business completed.