College Station City Council members officially adopted a $412 million budget for fiscal year 2022-23, and a decreased property tax rate of $0.524613 per $100 assessed valuation during a Thursday night meeting at City Hall.
City staff said the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Winter Storm Uri, natural gas increases and inflation are reflected in the city’s urgency to have a better prepared city budget while also having a reduced tax rate.
Since budget talks began in July, the budget increased to $412,370,777 in expenditures, including $324.6 million for operations and maintenance and $87.8 million for capital projects, and is an overall increase of 16.48% from the FY 2022 budget, according to Mary Ellen Leonard, the city’s finance director.
The governmental funds total $132 million, with enterprise funds at $167 million and special revenue funds at $24 million, Leonard said.
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In July the council was presented a proposed budget of $410 million. The budget increased by $2.4 million to account for $50,000 for city library materials; a $150,000 transfer from the fund balance into capital projects for bird blinds — a place for bird-watching — for the Parks and Recreation Department; an allotment of $240,000 for a demolition project for the nonprofit Unlimited Potential; and $2 million toward the city’s Community Development Block Grant funds, Leonard said.
The council also approved a 10% increase in electric utility rates, roadway maintenance, solid waste, drainage fees and licenses and permits. There is no increase in water or wastewater utility rates.
Leonard said the increase in electric utility rates is due to the impact of Winter Storm Uri, in which the city paid $48.3 million for 10 days’ worth of electricity on behalf of residents. The rate increase will impact the average utility bill with an increase of about $14 a month.
Key factors in the general fund budget include plans to hire more public safety staff and purchase city vehicles. This includes hiring two police officers and a code enforcement officer for the Northgate community; seven firefighters and three solid waste employees; and purchasing two police vehicles, one EMS ambulance and two solid waste vehicles.
The current tax rate of $0.534618 per $100 valuation was reduced by 1 cent to $0.524613 per valuation. The debt service portion of the approved tax rate is $0.21141 per $100 valuation, and the operations and maintenance portion is $0.313172 per valuation. The new tax rate will affect the average College Station homeowner on their annual property tax bill by about $183, according to city staff.
Before the council took a vote on the budget and tax rate, council member Elizabeth Cunha said while she was in favor of both, she was in disagreement on some of the budget expenditures.
“I wish we were not spending $150,000 on bird blinds,” she said. “I wish we were not renaming a building [Lick Creek Nature Center] without knowing what it cost yet. There are definitely some things I wish we were not doing, but as a whole I think the budget is solid, and it reflects the inflationary escalation that we have seen over the past year. I am grateful the city has been able to reduce the tax rate by a penny — and I don’t think our budget is perfect — and I would encourage people to take a close look at it and voice their opinions because I have voiced mine. But I will be voting for the budget. I think it meets the whole of our citizens and our staff.”
After a public hearing on July 14, the council voted to rename the Lick Creek Nature Center after former Mayor Gary Halter, who led the city’s effort to obtain the property that became Lick Creek Park.
Council member Dennis Maloney spoke after Cunha and said he was in favor of supporting the budget and tax rate.
“There is no one up here that thinks that this is perfect, and that there aren’t some things we couldn’t take out and parse. But it is not about that, it is about totality,” he said. “Staff has worked on it diligently, and once again, for the 20th or 30th year in a row, we received commendation for such an excellent budget.”
The FY 2023 budget will take effect Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2023.
