Travis County Commissioners Court
July 24, 2007
Item 36
Blaine keith is here, and so let's just call up the revenue item number 36, receive and discuss as necessary the thirty references mat for the fy--third references mat --revenue estimate for the fy '08 budget process.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
>> good morning.
>> auditor's office. This morning we had the third references mat for you. It's the one within your preliminary budget. It's really not very different from the last estimate you saw. It's at 41.17 cents, which is just ever so slightly above the effective tax rate. The general fund is 416 million and that is about a 3.8 million increase from the second estimate. Pbo had asked us to maintain the target of keeping the increase and current property taxes at four percent above the current budget. So your rate changed in this estimate but the revenue didn't change very much. The only change in the current property taxes came because of rounding, to get as close as we couldel we're kind of limited by four dudge--digits on the tax rate. About 60 percent of the change in the whole fund was because the beginning balance went up and that is because of change in the forecast of current year expenditures. There were some budget request packages in this estimate that pbo wanted to put in the preliminary budget and so we have included the revenue that went along with them. There were two ongoing contracts that the district attorney has with the city of Austin, and those got to the point we felt confident they are going to continue , so those are in the preliminary budget and we have added the revenue for those. And we did add, made our first shot at estimating the new civil fees in the jp courts from senate bill 1412 so those are in there. By and large those are really the changes to the general funnel, very--fund, very similar to the second estimate. The other funds you see a few differences the risk management fund is in your estimate. We didn't have that in the second. We have it in the third we had all your funds. We had to resurrect the voter registration fund, which is an old fund we haven't used in a number of years, because of a change in procedure over at the state, not really a change in revenue excesses, just how it's being handled. We had to go back into history and bring out the voter registration fund again. We have two new funds in this estimate, one is the drug court program if fund and the other the probate guardian ship fund, and both of those are results of new laws coming out of the legislature. I would note that on the probate guardianship fund, that fee doesn't actually start until January 1 so you won't see a full year activity in that fund until '09. The debt service, we I know what we are shooting for in debt service, so as we get new information from the appraisal district, what changes there is just the rate. In this estimate the rate went from 8.2 to 8.13 cents that is where we are on the third references mat. --references estimate. I'd be glad to answer's questions.
>> the four percent is not an increase in taxes that four percent is generated by new property and the increase over effective rate is point two. In essence this is a pretty flat tax rate it's a point two percent increase. That is the way we've looked at it in the past. So the tax increases, the additional tax revenue that blaine is talking about, is primarily generated by the new property that has come on the roles, not by an increase in the tax rate.
>> we were told, I guess, by planning and budget during this last presentation that the tax bill for the average property owner would in fact go down.
>> yeah.
>> they hear us mention that the tax rate goes down all the tile. The actual tax bill for the average property owner would in fact go down.
>> right because the inflation in the role is inversely related to the effective tax rate. So when you have inflation in your role, and we have had inflation in the role, and the value of your property goes up. It's in, your rate goes down to compensate that. So that is exactly right. And if in facts, the way the role, for people who are watching, judge, works, and you know this , it depends on how your property operates compared to other properties and that is if your property is pretty well inflated the same as the role at the effective rate, you don't see a tax increase. And I believe it's a true statement, is it, blaine, that the commercial has grown faster than residential? On the role.
>> it has the last few years.
>> so what would happen is probably most, some, I wouldn't say most, in--inflation in the role is due to commercial. If the residential did not inflate at the same percentage, then you are exactly right. Homeowners will see an actual decrease in their taxes for the county tax rate.
>> that is real important that people understand. Look at your county tax.
>> that's right.
>> what happens is you get your tax bill.
>> right.
>> and everybody peed--immediately goes to the bottom and says we knew somebody was teg us something that is really not true if you look at it.
>> sure.
>> you look at the county and the other thing is if your appraisal went up above 9.3 percent, then you will witness, even in your county taxes, a little increase in your taxes so it's got to t and a lot of us have much greater than ten percent you can't take more than ten or you can't pay taxes on more than ten percent. There are, to be able to tell people that whenever they ask you. They say that is not true, it's something that is not accurate for me some people that had a greater than 9.3 percent appraisal.
>> sure.
>> 9.7 percent was the average increase?
>> I think it was.
>> because, yeah, another way to say that, if your property value increased the average, then you will still see a tax bill from the county decrease.
>> right.
>> but if your increase was above average, you probably are looking at a small increase.
>> right. And of course, it's a good time to say as well that the county offers a 20 percent homestead exemption, which makes a significant difference. And if in fact a person takes their property tax bill and looks at the amount of the actual taxes, there was a time when the city's rate was in fact higher, or lower, lower than ours, because we gave the exemption and they didn't. And yet the actual taxes paid were higher. I think this year it's going to be higher no matter what, the city. What is important is to look at the actual dollars on the bill. And this year, the legislature, you know, they promised a third reduction in school taxes. School went up the four penny, I think it is, maximum whatever they can do. Theirs is different than ours. The legislature allowed them to do. They went to what would be their rollback rate. But, the last I heard, the school board they were looking at a tax rate of about 1.17, and it had been higher than 1.5. So people will see a reduction this year in their school taxes, which will reflect the bill as a whole, as their reading them down but you're right, Commissioner, you need to look at the county taxes, the county in our unified tax collection as an efficiency for taxpayers, we send out one bill for all the jurisdictions, and sometimes they think that is the county's tax rate. Yeah.
>> they think that a lot.
>> they do. Can you see why they would.
>> you go out at different meetings and different settings, and you kind of are hit with the tax question, you know. They think it's all Travis County.
>> the other thing.
>> it's not, but you really have to explain.
>> you do.
>> the bottom line is what folks look at and that it's coming from Travis County.
>> you know what, we need to print you out an average tax bill with the rates on it. We did that last year, that you can have with you if you were out talking to people you can actually say here is an average home owner bill and this is what it looks like then you all have given a larger exemption for people over 65 as well.
>> exactly.
>> that is important for people to file for that exemption. It's in the automatic they have to file for it.
>> okay. Thank you very much.
>> thank you all.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, July 25, 2007, 18:30 AM