Council approved the proposed rate of $0.319 per $100 valuation during the Sept. 5 meeting while also approving the fiscal year 2023-24 budget. The tax rate will provide 83% of the operations budget, and 17% will go toward debt service. The tax rate for FY 2022-23 was $0.36 per $100 of valuation.
According to documents, Southlake has a combined appraisal amount of $10.56 billion from all properties in Tarrant and Denton counties. Tax statements will be generated after Oct. 1 and will reflect a reduced property tax by $0.04 compared to FY 2022-23. The proposed budget also includes keeping the 20% homestead exemption.
Southlake Chief Financial Officer Sharen Jackson noted the changes will cost the city around $9.3 million compared to last year’s rates.
An average house with a $1 million valuation would see a tax bill of $2,600, Jackson said.
Of the overall tax bill, only 12% of the bill will go to Southlake. Outstanding debt and property tax support debt will be paid off in less than 10 years, Jackson added.
In a nutshell
Jackson said the budget was a little more than $142 million, an 8.2% increase from FY 2022-23.
Water sales to residential and commercial customers as well as wastewater sales all showed an increase in terms of revenues, but the city will also be paying more for water and wastewater as well, according to documents. Residential customer water sales are expected to generate 12.3% more; commercial water sales will generate 11.9% more; and wastewater sales will generate 36.1% more.
Other notable increase include:
- Wastewater costs to the city will increase by 56.6% to $9.6 million.
- Community services will increase by 16.5% to $1.7 million.
- Parks and recreation will spend 21.3% more at $7.6 million.
- Library services cost will be up 23.4% to $1.3 million.
- Facility maintenance costs will increase by 120.7% to $761,296.
“It is a commitment from this council that we will always do our very best to be fiscally responsible because that is the right thing to do,” Southlake Mayor John Huffman said. “The money that comes into Southlake is not our money; it’s the taxpayers’ money, and I think this budget reflects that.”
