Departmental budget presentations conclude.
Public hearings on the proposed Fiscal Year 2020 Annual Budget and Plan of Municipal Services and the proposed tax rate were conducted at a special City Council Meeting at 5 p.m. tonight. A second set of hearings is scheduled September 10 at 5 p.m.
The proposed budget totals more than $209 million and includes no increases in the tax rate or utility fees.
City Council set the preliminary tax rate at the current tax rate of 74.98 cents per $100 of assessed property value at its August 20 meeting. The adopted tax rate cannot exceed this amount. While the current tax rate is not proposed to increase, State law considers the rate a tax increase because it will bring in more revenue in the coming year due to property value growth. A second tax rate public hearing is scheduled September 10 at 5 p.m. at City Hall.
Following the special meeting, budget deliberations resumed. At last week’s meeting, City Council directed the City Manager to identify about $100,000 to add to The HOP’s budgeted contribution of $120,850. An agency representative advised the body that the City of Killeen would need to contribute $222,366 in the coming year to maintain the same level of service. The City Manager proposed taking $50,000 from a contingency account, $25,000 from a $50,000 decision package for dangerous building abatement and the remaining $26,516 from a $65,000 decision package approved for Animal Shelter veterinary services. City Council issued a motion of direction to proceed with this change.
Departmental presentations resumed in the Support Services core function area. Finance delivered details for the Fleet Services and Utility Collections divisions. Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal and Public Works Engineering budgets were also delivered. Debt service funds and non-departmental allocations were the final staff presentations in this budget process.
City Council will continue deliberating the proposal through budget adoption scheduled September 17. Fiscal Year 2020 begins October 1, 2019 and ends September 30, 2020.
The entire proposed budget is available at KilleenTexas.gov/Budget along with links to all documents, presentations, notices and videos.