Travis County Commissioners Court
September 13, 2005
Item 3
Number 3 is a public hearing to receive public comments on fy'06 tax increase and budget.
>> move to open the public hearing.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Mr. Smith?
>> Commissioners court has gone through markup. You have before you as a result of those actions a proposed tax rate of 4993. That is 2.29 cents, [indiscernible] above the effective tax rate. Impact on the average home tead would be just under $42 a year. I can go into great detail or -- finish my comments at this point at your request.
>> maybe a good idea to hit the highlights on that summary.
>> the total general fund is a little over $360 million. Total taxes raised from that point 4993 tax rate will be $248 million and some change. That's just under $18 million more than what the taxes generated last year. The largest components of the budget deal with inmate increases in the sheriff's office. The sheriff's office will -- will be receiving a little over $3.7 million. To handle the increased staffing of -- there are compensation increases, 5% for the peace officers and returning to a 2% step increase along with some other increases, a 5% increase for rank and file. Broken down by a 3% cola, two percent performance based pay. Health benefits for county employees, $1.9 million. There's a half a million dollars worth of mental health enhancements, you know, a variety of different -- different county agencies. There's -- there's a variety of public safety increases related to the -- to the emergency, the e.m.s. Interlocal with the city of Austin. Juvenile court increases and increases in the district attorney's office for jail overcrowding and prosecution initiatives. And then literally dozens of other initiatives related to the county's mission.
>> and we are still in -- we have markup posted this week and probably next week, too, so there may be some tweaking of the budget before it's all over. Would anyone like to give testimony during this public hearing? This is item no. 3 regarding the Travis County '06 tax increase and budget.
>> move to close the public hearing.
>> no takers? On the public hearing on 3? All in favor? Hold on. Hold on.
>> [indiscernible] we do need that legal advice I take it.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Now the Commissioners court needs to convene in executive session with legal counsel to discuss senate bill 18, which has some new public notice requirements regarding budgets, tax increases, et cetera. So we want to make sure that we are complying with the law. Some questions have been raised. So under the consultation with attorney exception to the open meetings act, we will convene in executive session at this time. Get some legal advice, we will return to open court before -- well, it's not posted for action anyway, but before we move on to another item. Hopefully this will just take a few minutes.
>> we have returned from executive session, where we got legal advice. And in new of questions asked, we will need to take this back into executive session this afternoon along with the items posted for executive session discussion. So we will call it up later.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, September 14, 2005 9:23 AM