Waco City Manager Bradley Ford submitted a proposed budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year July 29. It is available online at waco-texas.com/budget.
Waco enters fiscal year 2023 "growing and thriving, despite difficult circumstances faced over the past few years," said a city news release. "The proposed budget focuses on delivering on the key City services and capital projects while seeking to limit impacts on the Waco resident’s City tax and utility bills."
Ford will present his recommendations to the City Council Tuesday, Aug. 2, during the city council work session.
The proposed budget provides:
• The City will invest about $120 million in capital improvement projects for water, wastewater, drainage, streets, and bridges for FY 23, an increase of more than 25% from the current year.
• There is a 3.09% increase in a typical resident’s monthly bill for City taxes and services, below the national inflation rate of 9%.
• The General Fund proposed budget is $177.3 million and maintains the City Council’s reserve policy of 28%.
• The Capital Budget includes $215.4 million in planned spending.
• City employees are "critical to ensuring the success of our City" and will receive a 6% general salary increase as well as improved benefits to ensure employee retention and recruitment.
Links to details:
Impact on Taxpayers
The proposed budget proposes a tax rate reduction for the second year in a row. At $0.764782, the proposed rate is almost 0.25 cents lower than the previous rate. This reduction is on top of the increased exemptions for homesteads (going from 10% to 15%), increased exemption for persons over 65 (from $5,000 to $50,000), and the establishment of an exemption of $50,000 for disabled persons.
"The exemption changes provide homeowners, homeowners over the age of 65, and disabled homeowners with meaningful tax relief that reduces the City’s property tax revenue by more than $5.8 million," the news release said.
Financial Summary
Based on the strategic priories of the City Council, the Fiscal Year 2022-2023 proposed budget totals $522.6 million. Of the total, $353.7 million is for operations and $168.9 million is for capital projects and debt service.
Next Steps
Ford will present the proposed budget to the City Council Aug. 2. A live stream of the council meeting is available at mywacotv.com.
The coming weeks will provide time for the City Council to review and initiate amendments to the proposed budget before final adoption, which is scheduled Aug. 30.
To learn more about the City’s Budget, visit waco-texas.com/budget.