If approved, Sugar Land’s proposed fiscal year 2016-17 budget would keep city property tax, water and wastewater rates flat next year. City staff outlined a $260.4 million proposal to City Council on July 19 that maintains the property tax rate of $0.31595 per $100 of valuation.

In June, City Council passed a homestead exemption of 10 percent for the 2016 tax year, an increase from 8 percent in 2015. The city will hold public hearings and workshops before the Sept. 20 deadline for City Council to approve the budget.

“We’re anticipating revaluations just under 5 percent for residential properties and about 8 percent for commercial,” Sugar Land Director of Finance Jennifer Brown said. “We did increase the homestead exemption … That will level out to about a 3 percent increase for the average residential tax bill.”

While water and wastewater rates vary by usage and the size of the property owner’s meter, solid waste and recycling service rates will increase from $17.23 per month to $18 per month.

“This is the sixth year that we have not adjusted our water and wastewater rates,” Brown said.

City officials also proposed hiring the equivalent of seven full-time and three part-time employees for a new city visitor’s center in Imperial Market. The new staff will work at the Sugar Land Regional Airport, Parks and Recreation and in other departments.

Altogether, the FY 2016 budget would fund salaries for 722.5 full-time-equivalent positions. The plan also proposes 3 percent merit-based pay raises effective Jan. 1, to be based on performance evaluations.

“This year, in light of the economic downturn, we are recommending no movement to the overall salary structures,” Brown said.

The city is also expecting a 2.3 percent decrease in sales tax revenue due to the oil and gas downturn, she said.

“It’s no surprise,” Brown said. “We knew it was coming, but we just wanted to show that we’re not seeing the growth that we thought we were going to see several years ago.”

Brown said the city has made it a priority to use less sales tax revenue, decreasing its share from 50 percent to 46 percent of budget revenue.

City Manager Allen Bogard said only 26 percent of sales tax was paid by Sugar Land residents and the rest by visitors to the community, which he said was a good deal to homeowners with the subsidization. He cited a Texas Municipal League survey statistic that Sugar Land had the    second-lowest tax rate among 25 cities with populations between 65,000 and 125,000 people.

“We really believe that we’re benefiting the homeowners greatly from lower tax bills and higher quality services than if we followed the traditional tax and spend practice that result in most cities having a 57 cent tax rate in cities similar to the size of Sugar Land,” Bogard said.