However, the newest budget is not without its challenges as the city is expecting to forgo a number of items to keep costs down, city documents show.
What you need to know
The new budget, presented at City Council's Aug. 8 meeting, is projected to have about $15.7 million in both revenue and expenses, according to city documents. That is down from last year’s budget, which was projected to have around $16 million in revenue and expenses.
Some key expense differences between the FY 2023-24 budget and the new one, according to city documents, are:
- A reduction in administration expenses by nearly $300,000
- An increase in information technology services by about $179,000
- A reduction in public works expenses by about $161,000
- Money for animal control, which saw $0 budgeted in FY 2023-24, totaling $308,000
However, it is higher than the no-new-revenue rate of $0.507231, which, for a home with $300,000 in taxable value, would be the difference of about $158 in annual property taxes, or about $13 per month, documents show.
The tax rate is not yet an official one but is what the city has opted to move forward with for future discussions as it heads toward final approvals.
Mayor Dan Davis said Aug. 6 he expects the newest budget to be approved in September. The city’s new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, city documents show.
Diving in deeper
While city officials identified several needs to help keep up with a growing community, only some of them are included in the preliminary budget, documents show.
For example, city staff have found there is a need for 24 new positions to maintain the same level of service offered. However, only five of these positions are included in the budget. The 19 that aren’t included are mostly public works positions.
The budget also does not include a benefit through the Texas Municipal Retirement System called updated service credit, which offers increased retirement benefits based on salary changes, according to the TMRS website. Officials estimate it would cost the city $431,000 to include the benefit.
Manvel is one of six cities—and the largest of the group—in Brazoria County that does not offer this, according to budget documents.
One benefit the budget does include is a 3% cost-of-living adjustment for all full-time employees, which documents describe as “a minimum ... to ensure competitive compensation to attract and retain qualified, high-performing, talented employees for all positions.”
What they said
A few City Council comments hit on the thin margins the city is working on, with some cautioning there will be upgrades and items—or even businesses—the city may not be able to pursue due to tightening its belt.
Tied into the discussion was the recent 10% homestead exemption the city approved, which some officials said made them more firm in keeping the tax rate as low as possible to give the maximum tax cut to residents.
Crime was another concern brought up as it has has gone up over the past year in certain key categories, Community Impact previously reported. The budget calls for one additional patrol officer, which totals $109,000 after benefits, documents show.
Mayor Dan Davis described the theme of the budget as “building trust” with both the community and city staff. The city has not had unanimous approval on a budget since 2019, which Davis said was also the last time he voted in favor of a proposed budget.
“I think we’re at a really, really good spot with the budget,” Davis said. “It’s not everything we would want to do, ... but this is something I could get behind.”
