Travis County Commissioners Court
June 19, 2007
Item 28
>> Number 28 is to consider and take appropriate action regarding the following. A is property particular rate considerations and b, 2007 ar accelerate fees-- fees--parcel rate fees.
>> good morning.
>> good morning, nelda spears, tax assessor collector.
>> a new employee to your left there, ms. Pierce ?
>> yes, that is our budget guy. Your budget guy.
>> I don't know that I would partnership my close working relationship with christian, if I were you.
>> that is so wrong, judge. We are here to present information on the parcel rate fees for this year, for the coming year. That is the amount per parcel that the jurisdictions for whom we collect pay the county for this work. And by law, we are only able to actually use allocated costs, the real costs of completing the tasks for them that are incurred. The 2007 parcel fee is a dollar two cents per parcel. The rate that we have calculated for this year is the same as for next year, the same as the current year '06 parcel fee, 1.02. Projected revenue for the 2007 parcel rate is 1.4 million and the projected revenue is a little less than the 2006 projected revenue, $11,271 less.
>> why is that? Dñmp.
>> why is take ?
>> yeah, I guess, with population growth and more taxpayers, I would have thought there would be a slight increase.
>> may I answer that is this.
>> yes, you may.
>> last year, didn't realize until afterwards, the projected included exempt properties. The capital and state buildings and whatnot.
>> okay.
>> the calculation, obviously, that made a change. This year once we understood they were senting except properties that we were not collecting taxes on, we had to change the numbers on.
>> so we pulled exempt properties out.
>> correct.
>> okay.
>> this ought to be good news for the jurisdictions for which we collect taxes right ?
>> if there is no change or if it goes down, that is good news for them.
>> right.
>> once again, dusty knight with the tax assessor's collector's office. I want to introduce two new individuals helping us, tim dow doing collections and cheryl yonsek also aiding with this, they will be contacting all the jurisdictions. As you realize we are doing it tor about 95 jurisdictions, not just the county. So we have some new players this year we have nothood in years past. I wanted you to see who they are and get a taste of who we have over here am I know christian has been working with them and they seem to all play together very well.
>> have we added any new jurisdictions since last year as far as who we collect and deal with? Is everything still pretty much constant? Have we added anyone else to the list ?
>> one new jurisdiction.
>> yeah, in other words--
>> oneone ?
>> just one.
>> that being ?
>> county lane, wc i.d. Number two.
>> sorry, what did you say ?
>> was kelly lane, wc dirks number two.
>> the why you.
>> the the small water district.
>> for the new people, we are in the nearly as tough and mean as we look, or pabe you all have heard before today.
>> I was going to say, probably getting that mean tough look out there, we obviously have gone to the good looking, see if we can twist the arms that way. I'm all for that. Great.
>> was that everything that you wanted to talk about right then? May I continue is this.
>> that's a little court humor, ms. Pierce. It can be dull down here sometimes.
>> we like to throw out those kind of things of he is pretty tight lipped over there.
>> that is all from us.
>> okay. The parcel rate that we calculated excluded costs of replacing the remittance processing device, the rpd machine. And without the without--rpd costs, the difference is two cents, versus 1.02 if you wanted to consider that. And without the rpd cost, the projected revenue is 1.4 million. But it's down a few dollars.
>> the rpd is a legitimate expense.
>> yes, sir.
>> for us to charge for.
>> that's the machine that we use to process the payment. We have actually worn it out out. Needs repraisepraise-- repraisepraise--replace zit replace zñrb replace it.
>> have we historically charged for that ?
>> yes, we have.
>> rpd stands for ?
>> remittance processing device.
>> okay.
>> remittance processing device is a banking instrument that processes checks, does the microen microencorroding, saves us money processing through the bank, savings money from hiring people during tax cease ton have additional people toe do the postings, and also we are able to get in the revenues each night so that the county and other jurisdictions get money quicker and are able to earn interest earnings.
>> we think other jurisdictions, if asked the question, would you like to help us pay for this machine or hire ten people, will quickly say, let's get the machine in.
>> correct.
>> okay.
>> we think.
>> somebody has to represent the other jurisdictions in the courtroom today.
>> yeah. I know they appreciate you doing that.
>> christian, you appear to be on the alert.
>> I'm here to support and answer any questions. I believe you also have the property tax rate considerations for consideration. I don't know if you wish to present that, ms. Pierce.
>> yes.
>> okay.
>> the anticipated collection rate for the effective tax rate calculations is 1 00 percent percent. You should be looking at the optional homestead exemption which is currently $65,000 for disabled and over 65 persons, and at $0,000 or 20 percent, which is ever--$5 ever--$5,000 or whichever is greater for all home steds, with no exemptions for the road district.
>> now, can you tell me again, you told me once, and some kind of way it slipped past me in discussion. Can you tell me what a person needs to do to qualify for the $65,000 exemption on the disabled side of things. In other words, they are disabled, homestead, she have property and stuff like that. How what is the process of that?
>> the property owner may apply for the over-65 exemption on their birthday, on the 65th birthday. Those are approved by the appraisal district. You can have either the over 65 or the disabled.
>> right.
>> but not both.
>> does the disability also have to, does that basically have to be something certified through tcad also.
>> yes, sir. They use --
>> what do they use to bon icious fy ?
>> the social security documentation.
>> okay. The federal government document.
>> yes, sir.
>> to substantiate.
>> the disability.
>> to support the disability.
>> yes, sir.
>> okay. Thank you. I wanted to get that cleared out. That question has popped up a couple of times. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to recall the federal end of proof.
>> uh-huh.
>> to show that you are eligible, disability eligible, and you have to go to tcat with that information.
>> yes, sir.
>> thank you very, very much.
>> when you say the anticipated collection rate is 100 percent, what are you literally telling me ?
>> 100 percent of what you budget.
>> of what we budget.
>> yes.
>> ah.
>> and there are the historical exemptions that have been 100 percent exemptions on the improved improvedment or the structure, and 50 percent on the land for residences and for nonprofit agencies. Half of that amount, those amounts, for other historical properties. No exemptions, again, for the road kitsthe district-- district--the road district.
>> I may be confusing this with whenever we get into this about what we actually collect, which is I think in the 99, you know, plus percentile. Is that different ?
>> yes.
>> you can see that I'm confuse you're back on the anticipated collection rate for debt. Assuming that you're going to have debt of $100,000, if you're in one of the jurisdictions not in Travis County but the state that only has only 90 percent collection rate, you would only be collecting 90,000 to apply tore the 100,000 debt. So they laud them to set a-- a--allowed them to set a det detrate which says I'm only going to collect 90 percent, which jacks up the rate for the bond, ins, so that you will get the $100,000 that you need to pay your debt. Okay. It's flipping it there. If you go with 100 percent and collect 103 percent, the state doesn't make you set that aside the neck--next year. If you go and set aside more they say next year you can't collect the extra dollars.
>> got it.
>> it's just in the calculation of the effective tax rate.
>> today we need to set the rate and the recommendation is 1.02 same as this year. I move approval.
>> second.
>> of the 1.02. Discussion? All in favor. That passes by unanimous vote. And we also need to set, what ?
>> the assumptions on the property tax rate, the ones described. Plus you have the debt buy down. I don't think that has been fully ec planed--explained.
>> debt buy down, christian says.
>> the debt buy down is such that if you wanted to get your tax rate down and you had extra monies or reserves or something else, you can go ahead and say we want to apply $100 million to the debt buy down which then would reduce the tax rate. It's something we have to scñrks rather than making assumption, we ask you that you all want to say you are not anticipated any debt buy down. You haven't in years past.
>> yeah, about ten years ago the Commissioners court through its existing leadership at the time asked that the tax office and the budget office come forward with these assumptions every year to ensure that the Commissioners court did not see something that the it wanted to change and it was too late. So each year, you get a request for approving the collection rate. It's been at 100 percent for I don't know, at least ten years, maybe much longer. The homestead exemption, which is at the max. The historical exemption, which follows the city's lead, and the debt buy down. Now, about seven or eight years ago there was a debt buy down opportunity, but we don't see any this year. So in essence, these are before you so that you can say, yes, we agree, or no, we want to do something different. Or ask questions or clarify.
>> we were instructed not to assume.
>> sounds like good instruction to me.
>> yes, sir.
>> my motion is that we approve the anticipated collection rate of 100 percent, and the optional homestead exemptions that we use annually, $65,000 for the disabled and over 65, and at $5,000 or 20 percent, whichever is grated, for all home steds, and that we approval the historical exemptions, 100 percent of the structure, 50 percent on the land for residences or nonprofit agencies, and half that for all other historical properties with no exemptions for the road district.
>> second.
>> that will cover it, won't it? Debt buy down we ignore because we don't plan to take action on. Christian, we annually get complaints from a few residents about our adoption of the historical exemptions that are approved by the city of Austin.
>> yes.
>> we still do that.
>> we still do that. You still receive some complaints. You still receive the list of what those exemptions are are. You still have an opportunity to take a look at them. Have you an opportunity to establish your own office and hire staff to change whatever the city has done within its staff. You have an opportunity to go through what the city did about a year or two ago when it went through a year-long process of trying to revise all of the historical exemptions and did so in a number of cases. Or you have an opportunity to simply say, we will follow the lead of the city because the city has the bureaucratic mechanisms and also the political pressure both to provide those exemptions and to reject them. It's your choice.
>> bureaucratic mechanisms being a euphemism for staff.
>> and procedures and forms and discussions.
>> okay.
>> wasn't there some, hasn't work been done--
>> extensively.
>> have I read that somewhere, christian, where somebody in the last few years has put together, if you wanted to do that, here is what we anticipate the cost would be for the county do their own?
>> I don't know if that was in great detail, but you would definitely need an independent review of hundreds of decisions that have been made by city staff.
>> yeah.
>> and then to say no, we disagree with that. Then to put the home owner in a position of saying, the city said this and the county said that, which is a recipe for a lot of very interesting discussions.
>> yeah.
>> anymore discussion on the motion? Any comments from any of the new people?
>> thank you for having us here.
>> thank you.
>> in that case you're welcome back. All in favor. That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you all.
>> thank you all very much.
>> thank you.
>> let's try to get the cd b g item in and then we'll try to get in number 30. 28 is to consider and take appropriate action on
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 8:59 PM