Looks like Kent Austin has already done a pretty decent job of correcting my mistake in the comments. Looks like I confused “income” with “budget.” That’s why they call it a cursory reading, I guess:
The proposed tax rate would raise the same amount of tax revenue as last year, not increase the amount by $728,921. This latter amount is the change in the overall proposed budget (a 1.71% increase).
Of the $728,921, fully $445,607 is for the Utility Fund, which is supported by water and sewer charges. The reason: the City’s water treatment provider is increasing its rate by 16% next year, resulting in higher water purchase costs for the City.
I’ll dive into the details a little more for a story next week. From my cursory reading, it looks like the city of University park will cope with a 4.66 percent reduction in its taxable property base by raising the tax rate from $0.26548 per $100 in valuation to $0.27845. That would be the first tax rate increase in the city in 16 years.
The city will raise an additional $728,921 with the increase, which will pay for rising costs in utilities and sanitation and an extra $255,066 in the general fund.
Also included in this year’s budget is a raise for city employees (they didn’t get one last year), and city staffing levels will remain much the same.
Author
