Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, September 28, 2010,
Item 4
Number 4 is a public hearing to receive comments on fiscal year 2011 budget and tax rate for 2010 tax year.
>> > good morning, how are you? Sorry, judge. The proposed 2011 tax rate is 46.58. That is by comparison to the adopted fy '10 tax rate of 4215. To give a little bit of background on the certified roll, the certified roll came in this year at $94.39 billion, which is a $4.69 billion drop as compared to the fy '10 certified roll. New construction for fy '11 came in at 1.78 billion, which is a $1.2 billion drop from fy '10 and a $2.1 billion drop when compared to 2009. The impact on the average homestead for fy '11 with the proposed tax rate is an increase of $42.26. This is the final public hearing with the budget scheduled for this afternoon. With that i'll turn it over to leroy and he can talk about the details.
>> inside that tax rate, the proposed tax rate for fy '11, based upon the guidelines the commissioners court directed planning and budget to bring the preliminary budget in within three percent of the effective m and n plus debt rate. And essentially to bring the adopted rate to the effective m and o plus debt rate of 4554 was an eight percent increase. The tax rate is broken down into an operating rate and that piece of it was a 6.7% increase, just to get the effective m and o plus debt, and the debt service rate was up 14.6, representing the additional debt that we issued. The proposed tax rate, the 4658, is 2.28 percent above the effective m and o plus debt. The average homestead in travis county in fy '10 was 288,963. That's for the entire county. It did decrease by 16,143 for fy '11 to be 272,820. The county tax, included the 20% homestead exemption that y'all give, actually comes in for fy '11 at the 101,664. As rid any said that is a -- rodney says that is a $22.46 tax increase. We'll be glad to answer any questions. The proposed budget that was filed on friday with the county clerk copy filed with the county judge and the county auditor, and a copy available in the planning and budget office. Essentially it took the preliminary budget that we filed in july, included the increases that you authorize in the markup in early september, including the 12 corrections officers that y'all have added, the five law enforcement officers and the increase in the austin-travis county e.m.s. Ground transportation interlocal. And we'd be glad to -- we also balanced the proposed budget against the fifth revenue estimate and took any additional funds that appeared there and put them in to your allocated reserve. Your allocated reserve for fy '11 is 8,953,199.
>> and how much earmark do we have against that? Roughly.
>> i've got it right here. We have a total earmark against allocated reserve of $3,277,945.
>> okay. This is the proposed budget.
>> it is.
>> that is the proposed budget.
>> but for those who want to see, say an executive summary of it, that document is available too.
>> well, the executive summary for what's available is the executive summary for the preliminary budget and then the line item detail of markup which adds to that preliminary budget, which makes a proposed budget.
>> questions or comments, court members? Would anyone like to give testimony duferg this public hearing? If so, please come forward. Mr. Pena?
>> morning, judge, commissioners, native east austin austinite back in east austin. I just wanted to teleroadway and his compadres that he did a good job on the budget as it is now because we're in a world of hurt like we used to say in the marine corps, but i'm also happy to hear that corrections officers were added into the budget. That has been one of my not pet projects, but one of my issues, priority issues because i'm a former federal corrections officer myself. So inmate to officer ratio it might be lower for y'all, but there's always potential for danger and bodily harm. But i want to thank you very much for adding that in there. And rodney, leroy, staff, thank you very much for a good budget. I'm concerned about the taxing, but i'll leave it at that because i think we have to do what we have to do. We have to help out in any way. Thank y'all very much.
>> thank you, mr. Pena. Any other takers? Please come forward if you give us your name, we would be happy to get your comments.
>> hello, good evening -- good morning. My name is john bush, i'm the executive director for texans for accountable government and i just wanted to inform you. I'm sure many of you are well aware and probably in the same situation, but we the people are broke and we're hurting and any tax increase at this particular time and with the current economic state we're in could be the straw to break the camel's back. So i just want to remind you, you don't always have to raise taxes and grow the budget. You do have the option in tough economic times to reduce the size and scope of government. So i highly recommend you do that because it's becoming evident that government in many levels is no longer sustainable and we the people are no longer willing to pay for it because we're broke. You can always roll back the size of government and you don't have to raise taxes. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> [ applause ] anybody else? Then we're post this had afternoon beginning at 2:00 to take action on budget related issues. I move the public hearing be closed.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 3:37 PM
