Small Town News

Ready for rollback?

---

Buda CQuncilmembers set a 22.5 cent tax rate Tues-day night, but city taxpayers may decide that they don't feel like paying that much.

The council put itself at the mercy of a possible tax rollback election, setting a tax rate higher than the rollback rate.

Councilmembers voted unanimously to establish a final tax rate of 22.5 cents per $100 of property valuation in its $10.9 million operating budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year. Though that's the same tax rate as last year, it's still north of the 20.5 qent rollback rate that allows citizens to call for an election overturning the rate.

Typically the rollback is. significantly higher than the previous year's tax rate, but due to a convergence of factors including debt refinancing, this year's rollback figure is actually lower than the current tax rate.

The release of the low rollback numbers caught city officials off guard late in the budget season. The council had been planning to raise taxes up to 25.5 cents.

The difference in revenue between the 22.5 cents the council adopted and the 20.5 cent tax rate that would keep the city below the rollback threshold amounts to $120,000 dollars, outgoing finance director Sarah Mangham told the council.

Councilmember Sandra Tenorio argued against the tax rate but ultimately voted for it.

"Given the environment of the community right now, I don't know that the point is how much difference it is," Tenorio said. "The point is that you can....If you do something that lays out an opportunity to call an election I just think there's risk to it."

City residents need to collect just 250 signatures to trigger a rollback election, which would push the property tax rate back down to 20.5 cents. Rollback elections are often successful because few homeowners resist the chance to lower their taxes.

Buda citizens easily supported a rollback election in the early 2000s, knocking their tax rate down four cents.

Buda's property tax rate remains one of the lowest in Central Texas. More than 53 percent of the city revenue comes from sales taxes, while just 8.21 percent comes from property tax. The city receives about $56,000 per penny of property tax.



Copyright 2009 The Free Press, Buda, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2009 The Free Press Buda, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

More from The Free Press