Sugar Land City Council approved a $324.75 million budget and a property tax rate of $0.31595 per $100 of valuation at its Sept. 16 meeting. The adopted tax rate reflects a $0.007 increase from last year's $0.30895.

Revenue 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 parks 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 election 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.

Sugar Land's budget for 2015 includes $167.29 million for city operations, $13.11 million for economic development and $144.35 million for capital improvement projects.

The operating budget includes funding for a number of City Council's high-priority projects, including personnel and equipment for the implementation of the city's fire-based ambulance transport system, implementation of a public safety compensation study and expanded code enforcement efforts.