City Council adopts FY2024 budget that invests in infrastructure

The Georgetown City Council adopted the Fiscal Year 2024 budget Sept. 12 and the property tax rate Sept. 26. The adopted FY2024 budget totals $868 million and maintains the City’s property tax rate of 37.4 cents.

The City’s property tax rate remains among the lowest of all cities in the Austin area with a population greater than 20,000.

By keeping the rate to 37.4 cents per $100 of valuation, the average property tax bill is expected to increase by $125.

Following rate studies for solid waste and water/wastewater services, Georgetown residents and customers can expect solid waste and water and wastewater rates to increase as well. The budget includes a solid waste rate increase of 4.5 percent for residential customers, or about $0.98 per month, and 9.5 percent for commercial users. Water and wastewater rates will increase 13 percent for all customer types, or approximately $6 a month for a family using 6,000 gallons of water per month. Residential wastewater customers in the city limits will see a $5.05 a month increase, and those outside the city limits will see a $5.80 a month increase.

“In the next fiscal year, residents are going to see a continued investment in the future of Georgetown, including in our transportation and utility infrastructure, as well as customer service and public safety,” Mayor Josh Schroeder said. “This year’s adopted budget addresses the challenges we’ve seen from our rapid growth while maintaining the services our residents expect.”

The proposed budget is online at finance.georgetown.org. The adopted budget book will be available online later this year.

Major themes of the proposed budget are investments in transportation and utility infrastructure, public safety, and customer services. Adequately funding those priorities—particularly building the infrastructure needed to keep pace with growth, responding to development pressures, and retaining and recruiting high-caliber employees—contributed to the proposed budget being $146 million more than the current fiscal year’s adopted budget of $722 million. Of this increase, $53 million can be attributed to the growth in the City’s FY2024 capital improvement program over the previous year.

Highlights of the adopted budget include:

• 51 positions in key areas such as water and electric, public safety, and a customer service 311-like call center
• Employee recruitment and retention: The budget includes an average merit pay of 4 percent and conducting additional market reviews for City positions.
• Implementation of a 311 Call Center to help centralize residential calls for City services, streamline processing and reporting of service calls, improve response times, and enhance customer service Citywide.
• Electric utility staffing, technology, and security, infrastructure to maintain system reliability, and enhanced cash reserve levels.
• Water plant operations staffing, as well as capital improvement projects, including upsizing waterlines, rehabilitating the Dove Springs Wastewater Treatment Plant, expanding the III Forks wastewater plant, and other investments in infrastructure to ensure water demands in the City’s water service area meet current and future growth.
• The adopted budget includes a $6 million increase from the proposed budget for a groundwater supply reservation contract.

For more information, visit finance.georgetown.org.