Round Rock is a fast-growth community, and has been for decades. To keep pace, we regularly need to beef up spending for core services such as public safety, parks and transportation. But we’re not building a Dagwood, mindlessly adding extra layers of cold cuts and cheese slices … just because.  Before we add new positions we evaluate whether we are utilizing current resources efficiently.

For an appetizer, we’ll cover the staff additions in fiscal 2018 budget proposal. For the main course, below, we’ll share ways we’ve cut calories by working with what’s already in the cupboard.

For starters, the budget proposal contains 35 new full-time employees (FTEs), broken down below by fund type.

General Fund

Thirteen are for public safety (Police and Fire); three for General Services (building and grounds maintenance); four for Parks and Recreation; five for Planning and Development Services; and four for Transportation. Note: Ten of the new Fire staff and one Parks staff are to operate projects voted for in the 2013 bond election. The General Fund is fed by sales taxes, property taxes and some fees.

Utility Fund

Four for maintenance and inspections; and a quarter FTE to cover additional hours for a part-time customer service representative. Utility Fund revenue comes from water and wastewater customers.

Hotel Occupancy Tax Fund

Two total, a marketing and advertising coordinator, and an operations and events assistant coordinator. HOT tax revenue comes from folks staying in Round Rock hotels and motels.

Now for the meat of this post. Here’s the sampler platter of ways the City has kept a close eye on its fiscal waistline in recent years.

Rethinking service strategies

• Construction of two Fire stations to replace Station No. 4
  • We took the two companies (three firefighters apiece per shift, 12 total) from the old Station 4, and put one company at each new station. That addressed our response time needs in the east part of town without adding new staff. That results in a savings of $1.6 million per year
• Repurposed a single-family home to use as Fire Station No. 9, saving the cost of demolishing the existing structure and building a new station. The renovation cost $250,000. Building a new station would have cost more than $4 million
• Contract right of way maintenance (mostly mowing of medians and the like) instead of having Transportation and Parks and Recreation staff do the work. That reduces the need for additional FTEs and equipment, and offers more flexibility for economic and weather changes

Repurposing of existing staff, positions

• Repurpose of Database Administrator position in Information Technology to meet a greater need in General Services for a Superintendent for Building Construction
• Due to the decline in Municipal Court workload, we transferred two positions to other divisions or departments, and shifted another position to Police records support
• Finance and IT are refining processes and utilizing cloud-based services and other innovations to eliminate need for new staffing as other departments grow. We’ve added no new IT staff in five-plus years. A half of a  Finance FTE moved to Planning and Development Services. And the efficiencies gained by automatic meter reading implementation means we were able to freeze 1 current meter technician in fiscal 2017
• In Transportation, we repurposed four FTEs for growth and project needs

Redefining support services

• Consolidation of citywide inspections function in Planning to increase efficiencies
• We deferred the purchase of a $1.3 million Fire apparatus into FY 17 to allow replacement of overdue Police vehicles without adding to budget
• By switching to a new model for Police vehicles, we’re saving $5,600 per vehicle, with $240,000 saved to date
• Shift to standard designs for new Fire stations — $94,000 savings realized to date
• In-house expertise and planning for facility projects has reduced architect fees by approximately 2 percent — $710,000 saved to date

Re-evaluate funding sources — grants, outside funding and volunteers

• The Library‘s effective use of volunteers offset staffing costs by $125,000 per year
• Of the $110 million spent on roads in past five years, $36 million came from other agencies. More tasty details here

Restructuring administrative focus

• Implemented a more robust investment management program to improve interest earnings without increasing risk. We estimate annual interest return improved by $125,000 per year
• Consistently look for ways to reduce debt expenses. In FY 17, we refunded Type B sales tax backed bonds to realize $90,000 in annual interest savings. In FY 16 we completed four bond refinancings resulting in $927,000 in annual interest savings

In the next Budget Bite, we’ll dish on the key ingredient to our recipe for success — the Strategic Plan.

The property tax rate proposed in the City’s $330 million fiscal 2018 budget is higher than last year’s. Lest you think we’re on a feeding frenzy of spending, know that most of the increase is needed to support bond projects voters approved in 2013.

The proposed rate is 43.000 cents per $100 of valuation. That’s an increase of 2.7 cents over the effective rate, which is the rate that generates the same amount of revenue as last year based on the new year’s total value of taxable properties.

Let’s dig into that 2.7 cent increase:

• 1.2 cents is for debt payments on voter authorized bonds from the 2013 election
• 0.9 cents is for new operating costs associated with those bond projects
• 0.6 cents is for additional operating costs to keep up with rising costs and growth

So 2.1 cents is related to bonds voters approved. That’s a little more than three-quarters of the increase. (Wondering about progress on the bond projects? For your eyes only, watch this Bond-inspired video to get caught up.)

Bottom line to you: The owner of a median value home ($227,714) in Round Rock will pay $7.58 more per month in City property taxes compared to last year.

While the property tax rate gets a lot of attention — and rightly so since it determines what you’ll pay each year — it’s not the largest revenue component of the proposed budget. Property tax revenue makes up 16 percent of the $330 million budget. By comparison, sales taxes make up 19 percent (more on that below).

We promised we’d slice and dice the tax rate for you in the last Budget Bite post, so here are some more tidbits.

Here’s a tasty morsel you might not be aware of. In the 1980s, Round Rock voters approved increasing the sales tax rate by a half-cent. The revenue from that half-cent is dedicated to reducing the property tax rate. The impact of that reduction is 14.063 cents. In other words, without it we’d be looking at a total tax rate of 57.063 cents.

Another way to look at it: That half-cent for property tax reduction saves the median value homeowner a rather tasty $26.69 a month.

The half cent for property tax reduction is different from the half cent dedicated to transportation and economic development we talked about in the previous Budget Bite.

Sales taxes are obviously a key ingredient in funding City services. We project $64.3 million in sales tax revenue next year, compared to $53.7 million from property taxes. That’s why we encourage residents to Shop the Rock, and why we promote tourism so seriously. (Though we’re not always super serious in how we explain it.) (We’re more serious about explaining sales taxes.)

The tax rate is divided into two components: the rate needed to pay debt and the rate needed for maintenance and operations (M&O). Here are those numbers:

For our next Budget Bite, we’ll review staffing changes in the proposed budget.

Key dates

• Aug. 10 — City Council vote to publish and propose maximum tax rate, set public hearings
• Aug. 22 — City Council packet briefing and work session on proposed budget and tax rate
• Aug. 24 — Regular City Council meeting
  • First tax rate public hearing
  • Budget public hearing
  • First reading vote to adopt tax rate and budget ordinances
• Aug. 31 — Special called City Council meeting for second tax rate public hearing
• Sept. 14 — Regular City Council meeting
  • Final adoption of tax rate and budget ordinances
  • First reading of utility rate ordinances
• Sept. 28 — Regular City Council meeting for final adoption of utility rate ordinances.

If you were to ask residents what leaves a bad taste in their mouths when it comes to local issues, traffic would certainly be the most common response. We get it. We drive in it, too. The good news is we have a veritable smorgasbord of resources to address this vexing problem. Mix them all together and it amounts to $53 million on the menu for transportation spending next year. That’s a lot of dough.

The most plentiful ingredient is the half-cent sales tax Round Rock voters approved in 1997 to fund transportation improvements. That half-cent is projected to generate $17.3 million in Fiscal 2018. And we leverage those dollars with cheddar from partners like Williamson County and the Texas Department of Transportation, as well as bond debt, to get as much mileage as possible from that vital funding source.

To wit: Last year, we had $625 million worth of completed and planned transportation projects since the half-cent sales tax went into effect. About a third of that — $263 million, to measure it precisely — was funded by the Type B corporation that administers the half cent sales tax.

We’re not saying that’s a water into wine miracle. We’re saying we’ve got some resourceful chefs in the kitchen.

While on the subject of sales taxes, know that some of the 1 cent sales tax revenue that funds general government services also gets tossed into the transportation funding pot. In years when revenues exceed projections, we sock that money away in a larder we call the General Self Financed Construction fund. A heaping helping from that fund has been critical to beefing up our street maintenance program in recent years.

Side dish: Generating more sales tax revenue is one we reason we promote tourism with our Sports Capital of Texas tourism program. Visit old budget video friend Ron Pitchman for a brief (less than two minutes) explanation of the benefits of tourism to funding local government.

Your property taxes, by contrast, don’t come close to matching the $17.3 million the Type B corp will collect next fiscal year. The Transportation Services Department draft budget is $12.4 million. Property taxes cover about a third of that — around $3.7 million.

But let’s get to the meat of the issue: What projects are on the menu for FY 18 funding? Here’s a sampling:

Hungry for more? Here’s where you can find the list of our current transportation projects, including those we’re working on with regional partners.

Still not full? Dig into the complete list of projects — there are 28 total — funding sources and totals in our proposed five-year Transportation Capital Improvements Plan.

Got room for dessert? Here’s a map showing the streets scheduled for maintenance next fiscal year.

For our next Budget Bite, we’ll slice and dice the ingredients that go into making up the proposed tax rate.