Travis County Commissioners Court
September 9, 2008
Item 5
Number 5 is consider and take appropriate action on continuation of fiscal year 2009 budget markup.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners. Just to recap the proposed tax rate that's been advertised and the court voted on last week is .4122. That is 5.48 above the effective tax rate and translates to an average increase after all exemptions of $49.05. We do not have any significant changes to bring before you this week. We'll bring those next week, along with the capital scrubs that were discussed during markup. That will be brought before you. And just as a side note, the public hearings will be scheduled for Tuesday, September 16th, and Friday, September 19th, both at 9:00 a.m. So September 16th and September 19th at 9:00 a.m. I believe joe did have one item that he wanted to discuss with you.
>> I think we ought to have a deadline for the markup issues of, say, Friday at 5:00. I do think we need to see them before Tuesday.
>> okay.
>> maybe we ought to do it Monday at 12 noon. I don't know that we have to spend a whole lot of tile with them, but it would be helpful to know what they are before Tuesday.
>> the changes, judge?
>> recommended changes, right.
>> we can bring the recommended changes. The only ones that we will not have until Tuesday will be any that are reflected or result from the fifth revenue estimate, which is scheduled to come to us. But whatever we have on Friday at noon, we'll be glad to distribute to you for your review.
>> as well as the scrubbing memo. I believe there's a county attorney review that needs to be done and we'll have that to you this week and where you stand on capital.
>> I don't know that it's necessary to get advance notice of minor changes, but -- okay.
>> joe?
>> when it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true. T.n.r.er record when we calculated the cost of purchasing hybrid vehicles. We came to the court and asked for an additional $87,000. And 717, to purchase 15 additional hybrid vehicles. We made a mistake in the spread sheet that we used to calculate that. The actual number needed to be 251,000. With that said, we're not asking the court to change that number. What we would like to do is revise the number of vehicles to be purchased with the 87,000, thus maintaining the budget as it is right now. Use the additional 87,000 to buy seven more hybrid vehicles. We had 15 in the budget already. The preliminary budget. You approved an additional $87,000 for additional hybrid vehicles. With that money we can buy seven more vehicles.
>> what would be the total number of vehicles we are purchasing?
>> it would be 22.
>> of hybrids, right.
>> and these are vehicles that were on mike's list for replacement. They just didn't make the preliminary budget. And there is the fuel savings. I think there is still a good -- we're headed in the right direction by buying the hybrid vehicles. And they will -- we estimate that it will save about 9300 gallons of gas a year, which is about $32,000 a year in today's fuel prices.
>> just to clarify, 15 of them were in the preliminary budge that's met both age and mileage, the other seven didn't meet age or mileage but were on the fleet manager's recommended list for -- for f.y. '09.
>> okay. What action do we need to take? None since its budget neutral?
>> we'll put out the changes list so you have that in front of you next week.
>> we apologize.
>> under the category of too good to be true; is that what you said?
>> [laughter]
>> thank you.
>> although it's still good. Just not as good as we thought.
>> I think I agree with joe on that one. We'll have this item back on next week just in case we need it. Okay.
>> judge?
>> yes, sir.
>> on number 44, just wanted to get that out of the way. Just abstain on my portion on that item.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, September 9, 2008 1:37 AM