Travis County Commissioners Court
September 23, 2008
Item 1
Number 1 is a public hearing to receive comments on fiscal year 2009 tax rate and budget. I move that the public hearing be opened.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners. The -- the fiscal year 2009 proposed tax rate is proposed at .4122, that is a 2.33% decrease from the fy 2008 adopted tax rate of 4216. The impact on the average homestead with all exemptions is $49 per month or 5.9%.
>> per year.
>> I'm sorry, per year, excuse me. $4 per month. Thank you. The general fund proposed budget for fy '09 450.8 million as compared to the 436.8 million adopted for fiscal 2008. That is an increase of 3.2%. The unallocated reserve tips continues to be set at 11% with an allocated reserve of 6.5 million. With that I'll answer any questions that you might have.
>> questions? Susan, leroy, anything?
>> yes, judge. Susan spitaro, county auditor. One of the pieces of analysis that we did last year was to take all of the jurisdictions, what the taxable value was, what the increases were and we just now completed that for this year to give a picture. I think that it's useful because people in the community are concerned about taxes. And the facts are this, from -- from fiscal year '05 to '09 the Travis County taxes on the average home said went up in total 12.98%. That averages out 2.6% a year. At that same time, the homesteads including the appraisal cap, 10% appraisal cap on homesteads increased 33.54% in that period of time for an annual average of 6.71%. So we had homesteads going up at 6.71% per year average and Travis County going up 2.6. But the real story here, which I think can't be said too often, is that the legislature came out, recognizing the pressure on property taxes, and looked at schools being the primary taxer and promised a solution to taxpayers. And that has not happened. In -- in this year, in -- the school district has a referendum on it. If that referendum passes, what they have done is we are now seeing the average homestead having diminous savings from where the taxes were supposed to be reduced. In Travis County, aisd in Travis County, our people have seen no reduction in school taxes based on the actions that the legislature has taken. In fy '06, aisd taxes, ins, mn and o were approximately $3 million for the average homestead. 3,000, sorry. Feels like 3 million, right. 3,000 actually it's 3,059. In '09 it is $2,995.80. So virtually we have seen no tax relief. The tax relief that the legislature promised in an area like ours that has expanding values we have not seen. The reason we have not seen that is that they have not put an effective tax rate break on that like they have for county taxes, city taxes and the health district taxes. They have not done that for school districts. So when properties go up, there is an automatic increase. But to add to that, one would think well the schools are flush with money. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because without the referendum, $175 million of -- of taxpayers money will go to the state of Texas to the general fund to be reallocated next year. If in fact the ballot initiative passes for aisd, the first two cents our district will keep. The next I think it's -- it's 1.9 cents, 40% of that will go. So that's on top of the 175 million. And that's not all of Travis County. Because eanes independent school district, the last number I saw, 60% of the tax value, property taxes are going to the state of Texas, not staying here in this community. Lake Travis, I believe it was 56% of the property taxes for schools are not being used to educate the kids in our district and this is a very significant issue when we look at property taxes because the relief that was promised is not being delivered and property taxpayers are -- are under that pressure. That pressure is not being exerted by Travis County and our mandated services. Because as you look at this, the average home owner in 05 paid $771 worth of taxes. This year they will pay 871. For the city of Austin they would have paid 876 and will pay 1060. Although the city's rate is slightly smaller than ours, the taxes are higher because we give a 20% homestead exemption to all of our homeowners and the city of Austin does not. I think it's fair to put that perspective, when we are looking at a public hearing, looking at this community as a whole, what things does this Commissioners court have control over in terms of property taxes. I will get you all a copy of this. Gentlemen just finished it, it's a complex analysis, but it impacts other jurisdictions.
>> with that, in conjunction to that 20% discount that we give right off the top, we also look at senior citizens --
>> [indiscernible] on top of that.
>> absolutely.
>> also look at those folks disabled in the community.
>> absolutely.
>> those three combinations I think far exceed anybody here as far as the taxing jurisdiction, taxing entity in all of Travis County. So I think that we are doing some significant things and again I'm glad you did point that out and brought up the comparison.
>> you are doing what you can do under the law.
>> exactly.
>> mr. Nellis, any comments?
>> thank you.
>> we are posted for a public hearing. If you would like to give comments during this public hearing, please come forward at this time. Please come forward at this time. Item no. 1. Move that the public hearing be closed.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. This will be action item no. 8 and 9 on today's agenda.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, September 23, 2008 3:05 AM