Commissioners Court Adopts Budget and Tax Rate for 2010-2011
Sep
2
Written by:
9/2/2010 11:01 AM
On Tuesday, August 31, the Williamson County Commissioners Court adopted a tax rate of .489999, the same tax rate as this year. The Court adopted a general fund budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year of $124,355,685.15, which is $496,104.26 less than the current amended budget of $124,851,789.41.
The approved general fund budget included cuts of $2,745,681 from the proposed budget. Cuts included reducing the amount budgeted for indigent health care from $10 million to $7 million due to a cooperative effort between the county and county health care providers. Another $41,999 was reduced due to savings in vehicle insurance. Additions to the budget included $500,000 for lump sum incentive pay for non-tenure plan employees who are not in law enforcement. The law enforcement employees’ tenure plan was funded. The Court directed Human Resources to provide a proposed plan to allocate those dollars to the departments and employees using the provisions of the incentive pay policy in the budget order. Also added was $11,727 to partially fund a victims’ assistance position in the District Attorney’s Office.
In 2009, the average home value fell to $183,285 and in 2010 the average home value fell again to $179,749. With the adopted rate of $0.489999, the average property tax payment will be $880.77, a decrease of $17.33.
Commissioners Court approved authorizing the auditor to transfer approximately $4,282,086.15 million from cash ending to balance the budget. Flores estimates to have a cash ending balance of $55 million on September 30, 2010.
In addition to setting the general fund budget, the court set the Road & Bridge Fund budget at $22,648,755 using $6.5 million from cash ending to fund additional maintenance, leaving $6,691,267.11 million in Road and Bridge Fund cash ending. The Road and Bridge tax rate remains the same at 3 cents. The Debt Service tax rate remained the same at 17 cents.