The city of Jersey Village hosted the first of three budget workshops July 21 to begin planning for the adoption of the 2014–15 municipal budget.

City Manager Mike Castro provided updates on projected general fund revenue and expenditures as the 2013–14 fiscal year comes to a close. Revenue is projected at $10.5 million, and expenditures are projected at about $9.35 million. The roughly $1.2 million difference goes into the city's capital reserve fund.

The city was able to beat its original revenue projections in spite of lagging sales tax revenue over the last few months as well as the loss of red-light cameras. City staff kept revenue projections conservative, anticipating that the ongoing Hwy. 290 expansion would have a negative effect on sales tax revenue. Projections for sales tax revenues will continue to be conservative heading into the 2014–15 fiscal year, Castro said.

Castro said the city is seeing about $20,000–$30,000 less in sales tax revenue per month, over the past three months, compared to 2013.

"I think going into this next year, those numbers are going to get squeezed down a little tighter," he said. "Fortunately, we have the reserves to get through this Hwy. 290 scenario."

Although sales tax has seen a dip, property tax revenue has increased due to the increased value of property within the city. While sales tax revenue as a part of total revenue has fallen from 27 percent to 25 percent, property tax revenue has risen from 42 percent to 43 percent.

"[Property values] were flat for about five years, hitting rock bottom around 2010–11," Castro said. "This will be our third year of pretty good increases. We expect them to go up [on] the order of 4 percent and end up between $870–$900 million."

The baseline budget for the 2014–15 fiscal year includes a projection of about $10.7 million in revenue and about $10.1 million in expenditures with all supplemental expenses included, or $9.365 million without supplemental expenses.

In addition to a decline in sales tax revenue, city staff must also deal with loss of revenue following the deactivation of its red-light cameras. The Texas Department of Transportation required the removal of all red-light cameras along Hwy. 290 during construction. City staff had plans to reinstall them at other intersections within the city but was unable to due to rules that prohibit installing them on county roads.

"[The red-light cameras] have gone away and they are not coming back," Castro said. "Even when construction is completed, I believe there will be another attempt in the upcoming legislative session to do away with the red-light cameras altogether. I don't think it's a difficult stretch to imagine the Legislature may be successful this time."

The red-light cameras generated about $200,000 each month in revenue for the city before they were removed.

Continuing the thought process of last year's budget planning, Castro said the city is taking a conservative approach to budgeting.

"The story again is about living within our means," he said.