The breakdown
Township President and CEO Monique Sharp outlined the preliminary budget of $167.1 million for FY 2025, which runs from January to December, as well as possible tax rates based on home valuations.
- FY 2024 tax rate: $0.1714 per $100 of home valuation
- FY 2025 no-new-revenue tax rate: $0.1615 per $100 of home valuation
- FY 2025 voter approval tax rate: $0.1929 per $100 of home valuation
“We have finite resources,” Sharp said. so we don’t have enough to fund everything we might personally want, ... so we have to look at all of these [budget initiatives].”
The larger budget initiatives brought before the board included:
- Town hall improvements: $850,000
- Waterway Square fountain upgrade: $6.4 million
- Bear Branch Sports Field parking expansion: $340,000-$420,000
Approving the same tax rate at FY 2024 will likely result in an increase for the township portion of homeowners' tax bills due to the rising value of homes in the area, officials said. However, Sharp told the board that around 50% of the township’s revenue comes from sales taxes and not property tax collections.
“Most local governments only raise $1 in sales tax for every $7 in property tax, and we’re the opposite of that,” Sharp said.
Sharp said the township’s board would also need to take into consideration a loss of $512,557 in sales tax collections from August, but she was not immediately able to answer why the revenue had decreased so sharply.
“The township hasn’t received the detailed support for the August sales tax report from the Texas Comptroller’s Office yet, so we’re not able to analyze the numbers until we receive that information,” Sharp said.
Stay tuned
The township board will reconvene to continue budget workshops at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 20. The meeting will be livestreamed on the township's website.
