by KIM HILSENBECK
It’s budget season for the city of Kyle. And with an anticipated increase in expenditures of more than $2 million, City Manager Lanny Lambert told City Council Tuesday night that it’s going to be another tough year.
The city’s charter sets the deadline for Kyle City Council to adopt the budget by ordinance no later than the third Thursday of September, prior to the beginning of the new fiscal year on October 1.
But before the first reading of the budget adoption ordinance on September 4, the city will hold seven budget workshop sessions, each with public hearings on the proposed budget, fees and charges, water/wastewater rates and property tax rates.
According to Perwez Moheet, Kyle director of finance, the city manager is still in the preliminary stages of working with the department directors for the development of the city’s proposed budget.
“We do not have firm numbers yet for the proposed budget,” Moheet said.
Lambert said he took his directors to an off-site budget retreat last Friday to discuss just that; their priorities, needs and wish lists.
Included in this year’s budget discussions will be the results from the community visioning process, a two-phase citywide discussion of the needs, wants and priorities of citizens, held in the spring.
The result of community input from those meetings is a list of prioritized projects and its associated price tag for council’s consideration.
By all accounts, Kyle will have a bond election as early as this fall to pay for recommended priorities. The list included more police officers, a new police station, road infrastructure improvements, a new fire department ladder truck, two new library staff members and community policing.
That list also includes something called Sales Tax Reallocation, which would increase taxes by $103.44 per household annually. Overall, the priorities would add more than $1,000 a year to Kyle households, in addition to rate and tax increases already on the books.
City leaders have not yet confirmed the amount or date of a bond election. Moheet said the council will take the citizens’ priorities into account as they develop the financial plan for Kyle.
“The final decision as to the timing, the specific projects and the project amounts will be made by the city council,” Moheet said.
Any budget proposal takes into account sales tax receipts for the year. Year to date sales tax numbers were $2,875,255, Moheet said. That’s an 11.8 percent increase, $302,599 additional dollars, compared to the same time last year.
With two more months in the current fiscal year, Moheet estimates Kyle will receive an additional $579,069, bringing the year’s total to $3,454,324.
“Our preliminary projections for sales tax collections next year is $3,678,855 or an estimated increase of $372,455 (6.5 percent) from the current fiscal year level,” Moheet said.
Several new businesses opening soon that will contribute to Kyle’s tax base include Applebee’s, IHOP, Sonic, Walgreens and Shell/Schlotzskys. WalMart is not expected to complete construction until sometime in 2013.
