City Council passed a balanced $24.5 million budget for fiscal year 2016-17 at its Sept. 26 meeting. The budget includes a reduced property tax rate for residents, funds for new city personnel and an employee pay raise.

“The conservative financial mindset that we have here is we’re preparing for growth, but we’ve always brought to council a balanced budget since I’ve been here since 2000,” City Administrator Byron Hebert said.

Hebert said Katy is in its fourth year of a five-year property tax reduction plan. The property tax rate has been set at 50.672 cents per $100 valuation for FY 2016-17, a decrease from last year’s rate of 52.672 cents. The city’s goal was to begin lowering the tax rate after the debt from the construction of Katy Mills was paid off, he said.

“We had been saying for years that, when that debt paid off—and it [was paid] off—that we would start lowering the tax rate,” Hebert said. “Our goal is to get to 48 cents.”

The majority of the budget’s expenditures are to be spent on the police, fire and street departments. The three departments are projected to combine for more than $15.5 million in costs.

Additionally, city of Katy employees will receive a 3 percent cost of living raise, and the city will hire 12 new employees. Hebert said many of the new positions will be public safety jobs.

“You’re looking at almost 70 percent of the hires are for public safety,” Hebert said. “And if you look at our budget, 54 cents of every dollar is [spent] on public safety. We really try to focus in on that particular service.”