The county hit a milestone on Tuesday, coming close to passing the largest budget in its history.
In the conference room at the county complex, the Williamson County Budget Committee passed a proposed budget for the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
At $515.1 million, it exceeds last year’s budget by nearly $42 million. The committee also passed a resolution that, if okayed by the County Commission on July 11, sets the county property tax rate at $2.15 for every $100 of property.
The county calculated the rate based on a 2016 property reappraisal. Last year the property tax rate was $2.31. However, the new rate is not, per se, a tax decrease, due to increased appraisal value on county properties. The last previous reappraisal was in 2010, and the total appraisal was higher in 2016 than then. To find your property’s assessed value click here. To calculate your property tax payment for 2017, click here.
In 2015-16, property taxes accounted for about $202 million of revenue funding the county budget; in 2016-17 that number will be about $212 million.
About 68 percent of the revenue for the budget is local, including property taxes, commercial taxes, hotel taxes, fines, payments, and other miscellaneous revenue. About 30 percent of the funding comes from state grants, such as education or highway project funding and about 2 percent comes in the form of Federal funding.
A vast chunk of the nut, 58.2 percent or about $338 million, will fund Williamson County Schools. Last year’s budget listed $472.8 million in total appropriations, with about $306 million of the pie eaten by WCS.
About $90 million funnels into the general fund, paying for such departments as courts, public safety, public health and welfare, parks and rec, finance and general administration. Compared to last year, the general fund is proposed to increase by about $6 million, up from $84.2 million.
The Highway and Public Works fund is slated to receive about $11.5 million, virtually steady compared to $11.4 last year. Debt service likewise stays static, with $65 million earmarked for 2016-2017 compared to $64.2 million last year.
Of the $2.15 tax rate, $1.21 goes to schools, $0.38 goes to the county general fund, $0.26 goes to general debt service, $0.19 goes to rural debt service, $0.06 goes to the Solid Waste/Sanitation fund, and $0.05 goes to the Highway/Public Works fund.
The County Commission will go over the budget with a fine-toothed comb next Monday, hashing out any finer points and fine print, before passing a budget and funding it with a tax rate.
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