Sugar Land City Council approved a property tax rate of $0.31595 per $100 of valuation at its Sept. 16 meeting, which is a $0.007 increase from last year.
Revenues resulting from the increase will be used to help begin construction on several parks projects, which were approved by voters last year. The tax rate increase reflects an average 8.4 percent increase, or about $80 per year, for the average homeowner, said Bryan Guinn, budget officer with Sugar Land.
City Manager Allen Bogard said without the tax rate increase, the park projects would not be able to move forward. As promised by City Council, all of the projects will be completed or underway by 2019, he said.
"Three years ago, City Council lamented the fact that we were not progressing on the parks master plan," Bogard said. "We are very confident that we can meet the growing demand that our infrastructure is presenting. I do not believe, however, we can afford certain projects that I see as discretionary."
The tax rate increase will provide about $13.55 million toward the parks bond projects in 2015, which includes $7.5 million for Phase 2 of Brazos River Park, $2.65 million for the nearby festival site, $1.85 million for the Imperial trail and $1.55 million for the First Colony trail.
Of the three propositions outlined in the $50 million parks bond last May, Proposition 1—which totaled $18.54 million to be used for a 65-acre community park at Easton and Chatham avenues—failed to pass with 48.99 percent of the votes.
The remaining $31.46 million passed by voters will be used to complete Phase 2 of Brazos River Park and to build a nearby festival site, along with roughly 10 miles of connecting hike and bike trails throughout the city. The bond called for a $0.05 tax rate increase to be implemented over the next five years.
Tax rate discussions
At the Sept. 2 meeting, City Council was presented with two possible scenarios by the city's budget office. Scenario 1 called for a $0.01 tax rate increase in 2015. Scenario 2 called for a $0.007 increase in 2015 with the possibility of a $0.01 increase in 2017 and another in 2018.
Based on the results of the bond election, the budget office determined that only a $0.03 tax rate increase would be needed in the next three to five years. After receiving feedback from several taxpayers, City Council decided 4-3 that the budget office would present the tax rate in Scenario 2 for approval.
