City fights rumors over Fire Department funding
HUTTO — The city wants to renegotiate its sales-tax split with Williamson County Emergency Services District No. 3, also known as Hutto Fire & Rescue, for two areas under development.
A letter the City Council sent to the ESD board in February released to the public March 27 outlines the details: The split would remain the same with the exception of the Hutto Megasite and Cottonwood properties.
Hutto wants to collect all sales taxes for those potentially booming areas where the city has a development interest.
Also during the session last Thursday, officials want to prioritize projects for a five-year capital improvement plan, but a tax hike may be necessary within three years.
Meanwhile, the city has not heard a response from the ESD regarding the two sites in question, though ESD commissioners said they plan to discuss the issue, officials said at last week’s council meeting.
“Some at the city felt that based on the tens of millions of investment in some cityowned land, that we would request 100% of the sales taxes of just those areas,” said Mayor Mike Snyder, who emphasized nothing else changes except who gets the lion’s share for the two areas under development.
In fact, the city wants to make its 10-year, 60/40 salestax split for annexed areas with the ESD permanent to aid long-term planning, Snyder said.
“We are looking at maintaining the existing agreement and looking to see if it can be done in perpetuity,” the mayor said.
If the ESD — an appointed body with taxing power to fund public-safety services in the county and extraterritorial areas — agrees to relinquish sales taxes on the two big developments, it would still receive its share of the property tax levied.
Meanwhile, rumors have been spreading the city is trying to defund the Fire Department, which Snyder is quick to extinguish.
“What I do not want, is for those who put their life on the line to be a part of some political game. Those who are telling our Hutto Firefighters (International Association of Firefighters) Local 4707 that the city is coming for 100% of all sales taxes are making those who protect us feel mistreated,” Snyder said. “This is not an idea from the city of Hutto and has never been part of any communication.”
He added, “We should all be supporting those that put their lives in danger to protect the rest of us.”
City wants to rank five-year projects
As the city prepares for June budget discussions, officials want the Planning and Zoning Commission to rank by priority a wish list for parks, facilities, utilities and transportation projects.
“This is confirming the work that’s been done by our city engineer and through the Capital Improvement Project Saturday workshops that the council worked on as well,” Councilwoman Amberley Kolar said. “It’s not solidifying and setting anything into motion. It is creating a framework to (move) forward and we will absolutely be addressing this in the future.”
Once the list is received from the commission, the council will finalize it so the city can start obtaining funds and scheduling project start dates for initiatives that total hundreds of millions of dollars.
The endeavors would be funded through bonds and certificates of obligation. However, not every wish will be granted, the mayor warned.
“The boards are there to give us recommendations,” Snyder said. “It’s our (council’s) job to sift through it and say we can’t afford (everything everybody wants). We’re the ones who are supposed to make people mad.”
Snyder has been a steadfast advocate for no-new-revenue budgets each year.
Capital improvement projects are not paid from the general fund so they do not usually raise the maintenance and operations budget.
However, they can cause the city’s debt service payments to go up, which could require a tax increase, officials said. That view dovetails with a plan presented at an earlier session by City Engineer Matt Rector indicating a tax increase would be needed by 2028.
Councilman Randal Clark was quick to explain why the hike would be required.
“The reason it is there is because the Legislature requires that in order to be able to get impact fees and stuff you have to have the stuff listed on your (capital improvement project),” Clark said.
He added, “It’s a five-year CIP so by parking it in the last year you can collect fees for the planned projects and then it will get shifted out as we get closer to ‘28. It will probably go ‘29, ‘30, ‘31. So that is not a real number, it is just legislatively for us to meet the requirements that we need for traffic and water impact fees. I just wanted that to be said to the public before it got misconstrued.”
