Frisco property tax rate to remain unchanged for 2020-21 fiscal year

Frisco City Council plans to keep the city’s property tax rate steady going into the new fiscal year.

Council set the proposed rate during an Aug. 10 work session on the fiscal year 2020-21 budget. While the proposed tax rate of $0.4466 per $100 valuation is consistent with Frisco's 2019-20 tax rate, the city expects to raise more revenue for maintenance and operations compared with the current year.

Part of that extra revenue is due to the 1.21% increase in the average taxable value of homestead properties citywide. The city also plans to shift part of the rate from the debt service to its rate for operations. The 2019-20 budget allocates $0.291520 per $100 valuation of the tax rate to maintenance and operations with the remainder dedicated to debt service. The proposed budget would allocate $0.298973 per $100 valuation to maintenance and operations with the remainder to debt service.

The proposed tax rate for the 2020-21 fiscal year is less than the voter-approval tax rate of $0.455172 per $100 valuation and the no-new-revenue tax rate of $0.450894 per $100 valuation. The city is required by state law to list those two numbers. The voter-approval tax rate is the highest tax rate the city can adopt without holding an election to seek approval from Frisco voters. The no-new-revenue tax rate is the rate that would raise the same amount of property tax revenue for the city as the same properties in both the 2019 tax year and 2020 tax year.

Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney said council is working to keep everyone’s taxes as low as possible.

“We know this year more than any, residents are hurting, so anything we can do to pass the most conservative budget we can is important,” Cheney said. “We do think that the budget still will provide the level of service that our residents are used to. There won’t be any change from that perspective, which is important to all of us.”

There are seven new public safety officer positions included in the proposed budget, though three will be funded by grants, Director of Finance Anita Cothran said. The fiscal year 2019-20 budget included four new public safety officer positions.

Public hearings on the proposed budget will be held during council’s regular meetings on Aug. 18 and Sept. 15. A public hearing on the proposed tax rate will also be held during the Sept. 15 meeting, and council will consider adopting the budget and tax rate during that meeting.