Town’s tax rate jumps 14%

Little Elm residents will be paying higher property taxes next year in support of an $11 million budget passed by Town Council at its regular meeting Tuesday night.

Property taxes will increase 14 percent from 47 cents to 53.58 cents per $100 of assessed value, which is above the rollback rate.

All present council members voted in support of the budget and tax increase except Beverly Hughes. Mayor Pro Tem Brenda Mills did not attend the meeting.

“I think that the tax increase is too expensive,” Hughes said. “I think we’ll have to learn to live within our means.”

Hughes also said that she does not believe enough emphasis has been put on public safety and leisure.

Other council members said the tax rate is fair because it still sets Little Elm taxes much lower than many neighboring cities.

“The tax rate we’re proposing is perfectly reasonable,” council member David Hillock said.

The new budget is about $1 million bigger than last year’s. It includes the hiring of an engineer, code enforcement officer, two patrol officers, four parks and recreation employees, and a firefighter.

The budget also will purchase some capital equipment, including a building inspection truck, four fully equipped police Tahoes, Cottonwood Park fencing, and two indestructible laptops for the fire department.

The town allocated more money for personnel this year, as several employees were hired during the year. Last year, the council budgeted to pay them for the part of the year they worked, but this year they will need to be paid for the entire year.

Many departments experienced funding increases, but many of their budgets expanded because a non-departmental fund was abolished. All expenditures that do not correspond to a certain department came out of the non-departmental fund, but this year they have been dispersed throughout the departments.

The facility maintenance fund more than tripled, because expenditures such as electricity payments for all town buildings will now come out of it. The information technology fund also grew substantially because of this change.

Before adopting the new tax rate and budget, the council spent several minutes debating the amended budget for fiscal year 2007. Hughes disapproved of the budget because it fell $243,777 short of keeping the unreserved fund balance at 25 percent of the budget, as recommended in a town resolution.

The end-of-year projection, however, sets the fund balance more than $500,000 above the 25 percent reserve.

“My vote against it was a statement to town staff that we will not in this next year make expenditures over what has been approved without them bringing an ordinance before the council,” Hughes said.

Although he stated that better council budget oversight would have helped during the past year, Hillock said that the responsibility was ultimately up to the council.

“Council spent the money, it’s up to us to adopt the [amendment] ordinance,” he said.

The council discussed the fact that no quarterly or mid-year budget review had been done, which Finance Director Ryan Adams said would have been difficult with a shortage of staff members. The council will likely look over the budget and make corrections at least one time next year.

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