Georgetown City Manager David Morgan presented the most recent updates to the city’s proposed $1.6 billion budget at a City Council workshop Aug. 11.
Ahead of the new fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, the city will host public hearings on the budget and tax rate Aug. 26 and Sept. 8.
What’s new
With certified property values now available, city officials saw a decrease in overall assessed valuation, primarily due to lower values of existing property, Morgan said. The overall certified property valuations in Georgetown showed a 1.8% decline.
To offset this and cover debt payments, the city proposed a maximum tax rate of $0.363 per $100 valuation, which is also the highest rate the city can implement without calling an election. This is an increase from the current rate of $0.353.
Because the average taxable home value decreased by 2.8%, the city anticipates no increase in the average property tax bill for typical homeowners compared to the current fiscal year, Morgan said.
Another change from the previous presentation includes using more available cash funds for water capital improvement projects, rather than issuing debt. Morgan proposed issuing $21 million less in debt this fall for the Georgetown Regional Water Initiative Project.
“We're seeing that we're growing in reliance in the general fund less on property tax and more on more volatile revenue sources like sales tax as well as pilot revenue and franchise fees,” Morgan said.
Digging deeper
The budget emphasizes infrastructure improvements, with over half of the total budget—$903 million—allocated to capital projects.
“Our focus continues to be on ... addressing the impacts of growth,” Morgan said. “While we've seen growth slow the last year, we had hypergrowth for almost a decade, and we're still wrestling with the challenges and the pressure points associated with that.”
Over $700 million of the capital budget is dedicated to water and wastewater infrastructure, focusing on the East Georgetown groundwater initiative and building two new wastewater treatment plants.
The city is utilizing developer impact fees to fund 8% of water and wastewater capital improvements, with an anticipated $251 million in developer fees going toward $1.2 billion in projects over the next five years. This helps shift the cost of growth onto developers, Morgan said.
The electric utility, which is the second largest fund behind water, allocates roughly 80% of its $123 million budget to purchasing power to support continuous commercial and industrial growth.
The budget proposes adding 39.5 new full-time positions across the city. This includes 11 public safety roles, and a new 11-member electric utility field crew to support grid growth.
Non-civil-service employees will see an average 3% merit-based pay increase. Civil-service positions will receive market-rate adjustments, averaging 5.9% for police officers and 5.4% for firefighters.
What residents need to know
The proposed budget includes a 4% base rate increase and a 14% volumetric increase for water, along with a 12% base and volumetric increase for wastewater.
Solid waste rates are proposed to rise by 5% for residential and 8% for commercial customers to build up financial reserves.
Stormwater fees are proposed to increase by $1.50 per month for residential customers and $15 per month for commercial customers to fund maintenance, staffing and system upgrades.
Stay tuned
Now that Georgetown officials have set the maximum tax rate and scheduled public hearings, council members plan to adopt the budget by Sept. 8.
