The City of Round Rock is regularly recognized for its outstanding work, including fiscal stewardship. With this year’s budget proposal, we’re sharing the secret of Round Rock’s Recipe for Success — strategic planning fortified by a heaping helping of fiscal responsibility.
Over the next month, we’ll be serving up a prix fixe menu of information about the fiscal 2018 proposed budget and tax rate. The City Council spent a full day reviewing the proposed budget at a July 13 workshop, and expressed its desire to get key information out for public consumption prior to the first reading vote on Aug. 24.
To whet your appetite, we offer up a first course of basic information below.
The foundation
The City’s Strategic Plan, updated annually by the City Council at a February retreat, is implemented through the budget process. Here are the six long-term goals:
- Financially Sound City Providing High Value Services
- City Infrastructure: Today and for Tomorrow
- “The Sports Capital of Texas” for Tourism and Residents
- Great Community to Live
- Sustainable Neighborhoods — Old and New
- Authentic Downtown — Exciting Community Destination
The measures
Budget Totals for FY 2018 | $330.0 million |
General Fund (Police, Fire, Parks, Library, Planning and Development Services, IT, etc.) | $110.8 million |
Total Capital Improvement Program (major construction projects) | $136.9 million |
All Other* | $82.3 million |
*Includes the City’s water and wastewater utility operations, stormwater drainage operations, the Round Rock Sports Center, tourism related programs and other services  not funded in the General fund and not funded by property taxes.
The proposed tax rate is 43.000 cents per $100 of valuation, an increase of a half cent from the current rate.
FY 2017 Actual | FY 2018 Proposed | $ difference | |
Median residential property value | $208,906 | $227,715 | $18,809 |
Median annual tax bill | $888 | $979 | $91 |
Next on the menu will be a breakdown of the $53 million planned for transportation spending next fiscal year. Spoiler alert: Your property taxes will help fund about $12 million of that total; the secret sauce that makes possible the bulk of transportation improvements is the half-cent sales tax Round Rock voters approved in in 1997.