The city of Conroe is no longer projecting a budget shortfall in fiscal year 2023-24, said Collin Boothe, director of finance and assistant city administrator. Boothe presented a budget update during the Council’s Aug. 9 workshop meeting. City Council also approved proposing a tax rate at its Aug. 10 regular meeting.
In a nutshell
The city of Conroe is now proposing $124 million in general fund revenues and $122 million in expenditures for FY 2023-24, according to Boothe’s presentation. Boothe said one of the changes to the proposed budget is updated property tax values.
“Now we have certified assessed valuation and we did see an increase from our preliminary number that we used in the budget,” Boothe said.
The certified assessed valuation is $14.35 billion; the preliminary value used to base the first proposed budget was $13.86 billion, according to Booth’s presentation. Around 46.4%—or $600 million—of the certified assessed valuation is new property, Boothe said.
Previously, Conroe was projecting $122 million in revenues and $123 million in expenditures, resulting in a $1.4 million shortfall, according to prior reporting.
Zooming in
According to Boothe’s presentation, other changes to the proposed FY 2023-24 budget include:
- Splitting the $300,000 proposed for Veteran’s Memorial Park into two fiscal years so it receives $150,000 in FY 2023-24 and in FY 2024-25
- Moving the $210,000 arts and culture grant from the general fund to the hotel occupancy tax fund
What else?
Boothe also said the city is proposing spending $1.9 million on merit increases for staff that would be paid out on an employee’s anniversary date.
- Civil service: $1.03 million
- Non-civil service: $882,858
No market adjustments or additional staff are proposed for the FY 2023-24 general fund budget, Boothe said.
Conroe’s tax rate
Conroe City Council approved proposing a tax rate of $0.4272 per $100 valuation at its Aug. 10 regular meeting. This is the same tax rate the city has for FY 2022-23, Boothe said at the meeting.
Stay tuned
City Council is planning to hold a public hearing on the budget Aug. 24 with the adoption of the budget and a public hearing on the tax rate set to take place Sept. 14, Boothe said. FY 2023-24 will begin Oct. 1.
