GEORGETOWN – A growing population allows Williamson County to consider having its largest budget ever.
The Commissioners Court heard a recommended budget for the next fiscal year from Ashlie Holladay, the county’s budget officer, at its Aug. 8 meeting. The budget office’s combined recommended budget is around $542.5 million.
The court wants to adopt a budget by the end of the month.
“We’re dealing with a lot of moving and changing pieces,” County Judge Bill Gravell said. “The budget just seems appropriate for the dramatic change we are going through as a county.”
The budget is listed in three categories: general fund, road and bridge and debt service fund. Holladay presented a recommendation of $312.6 million for the general fund, a 10.6% increase from what was adopted for the past year.
Operation highlights of that specific fund include $7 million for the long range transportation plan, $16.2 million for capital improvement highlights and $828,000 for Liberty Hill Emergency Medical Services Station.
The court said the commissioners will potentially vote on adopting the budget Aug. 22, while being able to make last minute changes the following week.
During the meeting, commissioners set a maximum total tax rate of $0.379282 for the upcoming year. The motion did not establish the amount the county is going to tax, but simply placed a limit to what the tax rate could get up to.
Since the proposed max tax rate was greater than the no-new-revenue rate of $0.35, commissioners officially called a public hearing for setting the tax rate Aug. 29 at 10 a.m.
A no-new-revenue rate is an estimated calculation for the amount of property taxes an entity would charge to earn the same revenue as the previous fiscal year.
The set maximum total tax rate amount was given previously to the commissioners as the voter-approval rate. That rate is the maximum number the county can charge for taxes before an election must be called.
While the tax rate is usually influenced by the overall budget, Commissioner Valerie Covey said she does not expect the eventually adopted tax rate to be at the maximum amount.
“I am not going to support this being the final rate,” Covey said. “I want to have that ability to move the rates around to help us in other areas.”
The fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
