WEATHERFORD — Council members Tuesday night got their first glimpse of the proposed budget for FY 2024.
“The post-COVID economy has brought many financial challenges to the city to overcome, from supply chain issues to inflation driving costs up exponentially,” Finance Director Dawn Brooks told members. “In comparison to two years ago, the city has experienced [increased] cost in just about all categories.”
Those included the cost of fuel, at 12% higher; janitorial and other supplies at 17%; vehicle repair at 7%; a 35% increase in insurance premiums; healthcare at 28%; and personnel at more than 18%.
“To date, the city has been able to absorb these costs due to an increase in sales tax revenues,” Brooks said.
The FY 2024 budget includes total revenues of $75 million, with total expenditures of $74.3 million, exceeding a 120-day reserve.
Sales tax and property tax are the city’s largest revenue sources, Brooks said, with property tax — the second largest — being more predictable than sales tax.
Brooks highlighted 39.15 cents per $100 taxable value as the basis used to build the budget, which is more than 6 cents less than the 2022 rate. The 2023 no-new-revenue rate is 37.15 cents.
“Two cents of the proposed property tax rate will be dedicated to increasing personnel in the police department by adding six sworn-in officers and two non-sworn personnel,” Brooks said.
The finance director also highlighted a 29% increase in the city’s taxable value for the FY 24 budget year, attributed primarily to market growth from the increased demand to move out of the Metroplex.
In the past decade, the city has only increased the property tax rate once, in 2017, when funding was committed to the new public safety building.
“The proposed 39.15 cents is lower than the city’s peak rate in 2017 by 12 cents, and is the lowest since 2007 in which the property tax rate was 24 cents,” Brooks said.
The general fund expenditures are broken down by personnel (61%), contractual services (34%), supplies (4%) and capital at 1%.
“The focus continues to be on public safety, with 50% of the total general fund expenditures split between police, fire, emergency management and animal services,” Brooks said.
An investment toward infrastructure and public works accounts for 13%, 11% for quality of life (parks and rec as well as library), growth and development at 5% and 21% for internal services (city administration, finance and human resources).
“The eight new positions [in police] would bring the total general fund position count to 286,” Brooks said, which is one less employee than 10 years ago. “On a per capita basis, for every 1,000 people in the city’s population, there are .79 employees funded through taxes.”
Other highlights from the FY 2024 budget include $550,000 for cost increases to maintain current service levels, continuation of the step plan/market adjustments for all employees, and allocating funding for various capital improvement and investment projects, such as street repairs ($3 million), capital projects ($2.2 million), $360,000 in grant matching for transportation/safe streets, $250,000 to complete renovation of Fire Station 1 and $90,000 to replace the roof of Old City Hall. An option to add three full-time employees to the fire department, at three-quarters of a cent, was also built in.
In terms of taxable value, those rates increased by 34 percent from 2022 to 2023, resulting in a decrease of the no-new-revenue rate by nearly 8.5%.
Total taxable values within the city increased by nearly 29%, with non-residential properties — which make up two-thirds of the tax base — increasing by 34.9% and residential by 21.5%.
“This means the impact to the average residential property will result in a decrease of their tax liability,” Brooks said. “The proposed tax rate is higher than the no-new-revenue rate, however, due to the 10-percent cap on residential property — and the majority of taxable value falling on non-residential properties — the average residential property owner will see a decrease in their liability of approximately $13.79.”
Council members took no action on the item. A budget workshop is open to the public on Aug. 14 at 5 p.m. to continue discussions.
The council is expected to officially propose a tax rate, hold a public hearing on the budget and take action on grant funding requests during the regular Aug. 22 meeting.
A public hearing on the tax rate, followed by the adoption of the budget and ratification and adoption of the tax rate, is scheduled for Sept. 12.
