County Commissioners adopt more than $302 million FY 2016-17 budget

The budget also included more than $10 million between the general and road and bridge funds for transportation, neighborhood improvement and capital projects that will be designated to specific projects at a later date. An additional $8.8 million was previously approved for specific long-term capital projects.

County Judge Dan Gattis said the county needs to think about securing land for future roads and rights of way, citing Austin as a cautionary tale of not taking action far enough in advance.

“Some court, someday is going to want to build those roads,” Gattis said.

Commissioners originally proposed a more than $282 million budget. With the addition of more than $20 million to the budget, the property tax rate is still being determined as of press time.

At its Aug. 16 meeting the court proposed a maximum tax rate of $0.481529 per $100 of valuation, which is the same as the 2015-16 tax rate. However, Covey said she plans to propose a half-cent decrease to change the proposed rate to $0.476529 per $100 valuation. The effective tax rate is $0.446618 per $100 of valuation.

Larry Gaddes, chief deputy for the county tax assessor and collector’s office, said that increasing property values have a lot to do with the decrease in the effective tax rate.

“The growth [in Williamson County] is steady, and it’s a lot of growth,” Gaddes said.

As of press time Sept. 1, the commissioners were expected to host a public hearing Sept. 6 before finalizing the property tax rate on Sept. 13. The FY 2016-17 budget goes into effect Oct.1.