Search results matching tag 'budget'

Proposed budget features lower tax rate, increased funding for street maintenance

Will Hampton — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:34:00 GMT

The City of Round Rock’s proposed fiscal 2013 budget features a tax rate slightly lower than last year while increasing funding for street maintenance by 36 percent, and maintaining an emphasis on public safety, community development and parks.

City Manager Steve Norwood formally presented the draft budget (PDF) to the City Council on Aug. 1. The City Council will review the budget at its Aug. 14-15 annual planning retreat. The budget and tax rate will be voted on at the Council’s two regularly scheduled meetings in September. A helpful Budget In Brief (PDF) document provides a high level overview of the budget. We've also compiled an FAQ for the budget.

“The City continues to take a conservative, long-term approach to its financial and operational planning,” Norwood said. “The decisions that are made now will strongly influence what the City will look like and how it will operate for years to come.”

Priorities addressed in this budget provide adequate funding to maintain current service levels in a growing community, with the exception of increased funding for street maintenance.

The budget proposes a tax rate of 42.035 cents per $100 of property value, compared to 42.321 cents last year. The owner of an average value home would pay $732.29 under the proposal, about $12 less than last year.

The City of Round Rock continues to have a property tax rate that is among the lowest of any medium-to-large city in the state, including those cities with an additional half-cent sales tax for property tax reduction.

Sales tax revenue is extremely important to the City in that it reduces property taxes and makes up approximately 51 percent of the General Fund revenue. Sales tax revenues have seen a stabilization trend for the past two years, and are continuing.

While Dell sales tax figures continue to show declines from the previous year, sales tax from other sources within the City help to reduce the impact. Due to the volatile nature of sales tax revenues, a conservative approach was utilized in estimating this budgeted amount. Reflecting current and anticipated economic conditions, this budget includes a sales tax estimate for the General Fund of $45 million.

Water and wastewater rates will remain unchanged from current rates. The City Council adopted a four-tier water rate structure in May that is designed to encourage conservation.

“I believe the proposed budget reflects a fiscally responsible approach to improving the City’s current infrastructure, and meet the current demands while maintaining the City’s strong financial position,” Norwood said. “We look forward to Round Rock citizens input and discussion of the FY 2013 proposed operating budget.”

Public hearings will be conducted at the Sept. 13 and Sept. 27 Council meetings.

Budget plan restores funding for street maintenance, balanced at effective rate

Will Hampton — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:34:00 GMT

The Round Rock City Council will consider a $137 million fiscal 2012 budget (PDF) that includes renewed funding for street maintenance, balanced at the effective tax rate, and no water/wastewater utility rate increases.

City Manager Steve Norwood presented copies of the proposed budget to the City Council on Monday, Aug. 1. The City Council will discuss the budget in detail at its Aug. 16-17 retreat, and will vote on the budget and property tax rate at its Sept. 8 and Sept. 22 meetings.

The proposed general fund budget is 2.4 percent higher than the current budget. For the past two years, the general fund budget has decreased by a total of nearly 6 percent.

The budget projects sales tax revenue to increase to $43 million, 6.2 percent more than was budgeted in the current fiscal year.

“This budget continues a very conservative approach to revenue projections,” Norwood said. “We are definitely seeing improvement in our local economy, but we want to ensure we are living within our means and this budget reflects that approach.”

The effective tax rate of 42.321 cents per $100 of valuation provides the same amount of revenue collected last year from properties on the tax roll last year. Because overall property values have decreased slightly, the effective rate is slighter higher than last year’s tax rate. An individual property owner’s payment will vary compared to last year based on the change in the appraised value of their home.

The budget includes $1.2 million for street maintenance. New funding for street maintenance had been put on hold for two years due to budget constraints. The funds for street maintenance scheduled to begin later this month were carried over from previous budgets.

“Without question the No. 1 issue I have heard from council and residents is the need to improve our maintenance program as it relates to residential streets,” Norwood said. “This budget has a significant amount of additional dollars dedicated solely to improving the condition of our neighborhood streets.”

For the second consecutive year, there are no proposed increases to retail water and wastewater rates. There is also no increase in drainage utility rates.

The budget includes funds to bring various employee salaries up to market levels. City employees have not had salary increases since April 2009.

“This budget continues to place a priority on our public safety and public service employees, and we have a limited amount of funding to ensure many of our job classes are paid competitively,” Norwood said. “It’s not huge, but it does address the most pressing areas.”

New drainage utility fee goes into effect in March

Will Hampton — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:30:00 GMT

A new drainage utility fee goes into effect with March utility bills. The fee is part of the City’s long-term effort to reduce its reliance on sales tax revenue and was approved by the City Council in November.

All single family residences will pay a flat fee of $2.75 per month. The fee for commercial, industrial and multi-family properties is calculated based on their amount of improved area – buildings, parking lots, driveways, etc. So if a commercial property has 10 times the improved area as compared to an average home, its fee would be $27.50 per month.

The City’s stormwater drainage program is designed to protect life and property from flood damage and keep runoff from polluting creeks and other waterways. The program had been paid for through general fund revenues like sales taxes and property taxes.

The City Council has been studying the concept for about a year. As part of its early budget deliberations in February 2010, as the economic downturn continued, the City Council asked staff to evaluate the appropriateness of a Drainage Utility.

More than 60 cities in Texas have created drainage utilities to ensure consistent funding for regulatory compliance, environmental preservation and protection of life and property from flood damage. A Drainage Utility also aligns with our citizens’ preference for user fee based program funding, where costs are paid for by those who use and benefit the most from the service.

Because Round Rock is one of the most sales tax dependent cities in Texas, the City Council in recent years has been systematically reducing our reliance on that revenue source for daily operations. For example, the City has paid cash for some one-time capital expenses to reduce our debt burden. Last year, the City Council decided the time had come to change how we fund the stormwater system due to declining sales tax revenues and increasing demands for other services funded by general revenues, such as police and fire protection.

Information on the Drainage Utility is available at roundrocktexas.gov/stormwater.

How I Saved My Phone and Ruined My Dinner: True Tales of a Wet Gadget

Betsey Blanche — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:20:00 GMT

I was beginning to think my summer was cursed. First my car was totaled, and then my laptop became completely overwhelmed by my music and photo files that it barely turns on. It seemed only right that a third item would suddenly and strangely meet its end.

As I was settling in the other night to read DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little (which is great and must be the only Man Booker Prize winner set in Central Texas) I noticed a cup of water I'd left on the nearby table. "Well," I thought, "I'd better put that on the floor so I don't knock it over and spill it everywhere." The best intentions . . .

I turn my clock to check the time and as I do my cute little HTC MyTouch slips off the table and does a beautiful, vertical dive directly into my water glass. I cannot even tell you how impossible it seemed. It just so happens a similar event caused the death of my Blackberry Pearl last year. But this time I was equipped with the knowledge I needed to take action.

Step 1) Get it out of the water as fast as you can! I immediately swooped down and rescued my sweet, sweet phone from the water (probably while muttering to myself). Step 2) Cut off the power supply. This is perhaps the critical step. The combination of water and electrical circuits is a bad one. If your phone stays connected to a power source there will be trouble and destruction (of those circuits). While you're at it, go ahead and slide out your SIM card if you have one. Even if you phone is fried, your SIM card carries loads of valuable information that would be a shame to lose. After a bit of fumbling I managed to take off the back of the phone and remove the batter. Step 3) Gently dry off all the parts of the phone as well as you can. Out of desperation I just used the UT t-shirt I was wearing. Step 4) Dry it out. I scurried into the next room where I dumped a bag of dry white rice into an empty shoe box. The fact that I even had rice on hand is also rather extraordinary as I was in the middle of packing up my apartment and the only food items left included two bags of cornmeal (why? I have no idea) and this one, magical bag of rice. Step 5) Wait. I waited about 24 hours because I'm impatient. Luckily, that was enough time for my phone to have dried out and it turned right back on . . . omg! It actually worked. You can tell I was thrilled because OMG is not something I utter often.

The dry rice trick is gaining popularity but I have to admit that I had my doubts until I tried it myself. It works because dry rice is a desiccant just like silica gel, calcium chloride and calcium sulfate. The difference is that dry rice is something you're likely to actually have on hand. It may ruin your evening stir fry plans but I'd certainly rather spend $0.89 to replace rice than however much it would cost to replace your phone.

Some Don'ts

Don't try to turn on your phone before it's had time to really dry out
Don't try to dry it using something warm like a hair dryer. The heat may get the water dried up but it causes damage of its own.
Don't try to turn on your phone before it's dry (I know this is a repeat. But I had to learn the hard way last time).

Photo from Flickr User benmarvin

City Manager proposes reduced budget for FY 2011 that includes additional police, new transit program

Will Hampton — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:54:00 GMT

The Round Rock City Council will consider a fiscal 2011 General Fund budget that is almost $3 million less than the current budget, but adds police officers, a new transit program and establishes a parks maintenance fund.

Round Rock City Manager Jim Nuse submitted his budget proposal (pdf) to the City Council on Monday, Aug. 2. The proposed tax rate for the $81.1 million General Fund budget is 41 cents per $100 of valuation, which is one cent below the Effective Tax Rate.

The Effective Tax Rate provides the same amount of revenue collected from properties on the tax roll last year. This state-mandated rate calculation requires taxing entities to account for changes in the value of existing properties. This rate calculation, however, does not include new properties. Under the proposed rate, the owner of an average value home ($175,980) would pay $725.53. Under the Effective Tax Rate, they would pay $743.13.

More than $1 million in savings has been achieved by eliminating 24 budgeted positions through a public works reorganization, as well as implementing process efficiencies. The budget plan also proposes refinancing and early payment of portions of the City’s outstanding debt.

“Over the past two years, our employees accepted the challenge of cutting costs and working more efficiently and that hard work has paid off,” City Manager Jim Nuse said. “I’m especially proud of the reorganization of the public works departments, which has consolidated functions from three departments into two.”

The proposed budget also accomplishes a critical goal of the City’s financial management policy – reducing reliance on Dell sales tax revenue to fund daily operations. Currently, Dell sales tax revenue comprises 40 percent of the overall sales tax revenue. Next year, it will be 36 percent.

“While sales tax revenue has rebounded somewhat this fiscal year, we must continue to systematically reduce our reliance on it to fund day-to-day expenses to maintain our long-term fiscal sustainability,” Nuse said. “This budget proposal takes another step toward accomplishing that key City Council goal.”

The City’s target is to systematically reduce its reliance on Dell to 20 percent of overall sales tax revenue for operations by 2017.

The budget includes four new police officer positions and $300,000 for a new Peak Hour Express Bus and Reverse Commute program. It also earmarks $750,000 to establish a fund for parks capital maintenance and replacement.

Tax rate-stormwater fee impact

The proposed tax rate is one cent below the Effective Tax Rate to reflect the transfer of the stormwater drainage costs out of the General Fund into a new utility. That revenue will now be collected through a new fee on monthly utility bills. We anticipate implementing the new fee in spring 2011. Fees will be based on a property’s impact to the drainage system, which would more appropriately and fairly allocate the costs for storm water services while providing vital funding stability.

If the City Council adopted the Effective Tax Rate of 42 cents per $100 of valuation, the owner of an average value home would pay $17.60 more than the proposed 41 cent tax rate. We estimate a homeowner will pay about $18 next fiscal year through the new drainage utility fee.

Retail water and wastewater rates are unchanged for fiscal 2011.

Overall FY 2011 proposed budget

General Fund	$81.1 million
Debt Service Fund	$12.8 million
Water/Wastewater Utility Fund	$38.8 million
Drainage Utility Fund	$1.6 million
TOTAL	$134.3 million

The Quest for Audio Books Made Easy

Betsey Blanche — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:58:00 GMT

Sometimes all I want to do is shut my laptop, silence my smart phone, power off my iPod and read a good book. But then there are times when I need those gadgets to help me get through a good audio book so I can busy my eyes and hands on others things like the long car trip to Kansas (Oklahoma can be a killer) or while I'm completing the odious task of washing dishes. These are great times to put on an audio book. Luckily, our audio book options improve constantly.

You can, of course, being by browsing the library's collection and picking up a book on CD or checking out this list of Audie Award winners. I've taken to listening to Oscar Casares' novel Amigoland on CD while I'm getting ready in the morning, eating a meal or cleaning up.

However, as much as I hate to admit it, the library isn't the only place to find great audio books. Below I've listed a few other places you might consider before that next long road trip.

BooksShouldBeFree.com offers free, downloadable audio versions of books in the public domain (books with expired copyrights). Some of these have been recorded by groups of volunteers but most of them have been digitized by The Gutenberg Project and recorded by Libriovox . The site itself makes browsing a visual treat. It offers pictures of the cover, a short description of the book, a preview of the audio book, two options for downloading, recommendations for similar audio books, and reviews of the specific recording of the book. I especially like that the reviews take the reader into account. Sometimes a book can be phenomenally written and then read by a dud. Bummer. Check out the page for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Another Libriovox-powered site, Librophile resembles Books Should Be Free is many ways and includes many of the same titles. One exception is that Librophile allows users to listen to the book right from your browser, a handy little feature. However, I find the site to be less appealing visually and the search feature felt clunky to me. In addition to the public domain content, Librophile also sells audio versions of popular books. Unfortunately, the cost reflects publishing costs plus the cost of a professional reader. Hence, an audio-only copy of Stephen King's Under the Dome would cost you $52.50. Yowza.

If you're more interested in educational material you might consider skipping over these earlier options and trying LearnOutLoud.com. They exclusively provide copyrighted materials which means users must be charged for downloads. Based on a quick glance at the site, it looks like the cost can be as low as $5 and $20. The site doesn't have the same visual appeal as Books Should Be Free but it is also searchable and has books broken down into categories. For more non-fiction books, you might also consider The National Academies Press

Google Docs Introduces New (super helpful) Features

Betsey Blanche — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:16:00 GMT

For months, rumors had been spreading that Google would being accommodating more file types in Google Documents and would increasing the amount of storage space available for users. A couple weeks ago, the rumors became a reality.
Google now allows users to upload, store, access and share their files through the popular Google Docs. In the past, uploaded files were automatically converted to one of three Google Doc types (word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations). With the new features, you will now be able to upload any file type whether it be a Microsoft document, an Open Office document, an image, a video file or audio clip. In short, the application is giving you a taste of cloud computing. Store your files remotely and access them anywhere you have internet access.

The other big change is the introduction of more storage space. The service offers 1 GB of storage completely free of charge and the option of buying additional space for $0.25 per GB. Based on the ever-increasing storage space given to gmail users, this move doesn't come as much of a surprise.

If you're interested in trying to service, you don't need to worry about switching email addresses or signing up for a lot of new services. You can simply sign up for a Google account using your current email address. Google's changes reflect a larger shift in personal computing which is beginning to really take off. The ability to store your files in "the cloud" gives users more flexibility while still (ideally) protecting personal files.

City prepares for $5 million revenue shortfall; considers new long-term measures for changing economic model

Will Hampton — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:30:00 GMT

As the recession continues to negatively impact City of Round Rock sales tax revenues – we anticipate a $5 million shortfall this fiscal year – we will aggressively reduce expenses in the short term, while retooling operations and our financial management program to deal with what we expect are long-term changes to our revenue model.

As of February, we anticipate sales tax revenue will total $37 million this year instead of the $42 million we budgeted for last September. We plan to make up the difference with $1.8 million in savings from a hiring slowdown and operational efficiencies, $1.6 million reduction in sales tax sharing with Dell, and by cutting $2.7 million slated for street maintenance.

We will not forego street maintenance this year. Instead, we’ll use a portion of the $6 million budgeted over the past two years but not spent as we developed a pavement management system to target those roads most in need of maintenance.

The reduction in sales tax sharing with Dell results from decreased sales tax revenue from the company. As part of the economic development agreement the City and Dell entered into in 1994 when the company announced its move to Round Rock, the City makes monthly program payments to Dell based on the amount of sales tax revenue the company generates. The payment rises and falls based on revenue performance.

If all goes to plan, our austerity program could actually result in a slight budget surplus by the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30.

Because we expect a continued softening of the economy next year, as well as continued long-term reductions in sales tax revenue from Dell as a result of its changing business model, the City Council is considering additional measures to sustain Round Rock’s solid financial status next fiscal year and beyond.

Among the new measures being considered are:

Shift approximately $1.5 million in general fund expenses that pay for our drainage system to a new utility. This drainage utility would charge a fee to properties based on the amount of stormwater runoff they generate

Increase parks and recreation user fees to generate an additional $600,000 in annual revenue (the plan is to increase our cost recovery to 70 percent from 60 percent of operational expenses)

Use $500,000 a year of revenue generated by our half-cent sales tax for transportation improvements to help pay for the street maintenance program to lessen the impact on the general fund, which pays for basic city services like police, fire, library and parks and recreation

Increase the transfer from the water-wastewater utility to the general fund by $400,000 to cover actual expenses provided by the general fund.

Begin charging for some fire and emergency response services, a move that could generate $100,000 a year

We anticipate being able to balance the budget for fiscal year 2011 using these measures. At this point – six months before the City Council finalizes the 2011 budget – we are projecting a balanced budget without an increase in the effective property tax rate as well as no performance-based pay increases for employees. It also assumes no increase in police staffing, even though we expect our population to continue to grow.

These far-reaching changes are being considered because property values are expected to decrease or remain flat, while sales tax revenue continues to decline.

While Dell remains a global leader in technology, changes to its business model have a significant long-term impact on our revenue. Here’s why: When Dell sells a computer or other product via the web or catalog in the state of Texas, that produces local sales tax revenue to the City. As the company’s business model has evolved and it has begun selling more products in retail stores in recent years, sales tax revenue from the company has been steadily dropping.

To put the changes to Dell’s sales tax revenue in perspective, consider that from its peak of $24.9 million in 2006, we are projecting it to be $13.3 million this fiscal year. We are planning for it to continue to slide to $5.4 million in 2016.

That conservative use of Dell revenue has resulted in $49 million for capital projects in recent years. Had we borrowed that money instead of using the cash on hand, our property tax rate would be 10 cents higher than it is today.

These changes to our financial model could well result in changes to service levels. Our goal is to deliver the services citizens say are most important while sustaining the City’s strong financial standing.

City plans budget reductions as revenues decline

Will Hampton — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:50:00 GMT

You may have seen in the news in January that Round Rock bucked statewide trends when its sales tax revenue increased 10 percent compared to a year ago. Most cities saw double-digit declines in sales tax revenue for the month.

Because sales tax revenue makes up 50 percent of the City’s $84 million general fund budget – and usually reflects what’s going on in the local economy – an increase is always good news.

However, the increase we saw in January reflects one-time, out of the ordinary activity from Dell. If you factor out that anomaly, which corrected a prior accounting miscalculation, the data shows the significant sales tax decreases the City has been experiencing the past six months are continuing. If we adjust for the anomaly, sales tax revenues were down 10 percent for the month.

Dell’s presence in Round Rock has been a significant benefit to local taxpayers since the company began operations here in 1994, generating around $45 million cash for capital projects that we would have otherwise had to issue debt for. (When Dell sells a computer or other product via the web or catalog in the state of Texas that generates local sales tax revenue to the City.) Had we issued debt for those purchases, our property tax rate would be 10 cents higher than it is today. Since Dell’s arrival, the City’s policy has been to limit our reliance on that single source of revenue for daily operations because of the volatile nature of retail sales in general and the computer industry specifically.

As Dell’s business model has evolved and the company has begun selling more products in retail stores in recent years, sales tax revenue from the company has been steadily dropping. Because of the changes at Dell and the national economic recession, the City forecasted conservatively when the budget was formulated last summer. We projected that Dell revenue would be down 10 percent, while non-Dell revenue would be down 5 percent. Combined, that’s 7 percent less than last year.

But the revenue decline has been worse than expected – sales tax revenues are down 15.7 percent so far this fiscal year, which began in October – as the recession continues to impact retail sales both nationally and here at home. So City staff is developing a plan to reduce the budget accordingly. The cuts will include position reductions, and other permanent budget reductions. The plan will be presented to the City Council at its winter retreat, scheduled for Feb. 17.

We will provide details on these and other future changes to City operations – which could include decreased levels of service in some areas – as the City Council provides guidance. Our goal is to deliver the services citizens say are most important while sustaining the City’s strong financial standing.

Your thoughts on the services that are most important to you are welcome, as well as suggestions for reducing expenses. We went through an extensive public process in 2006 to gauge the public appetite for service level changes as well as how to pay for services. That input has influenced budget deliberations ever since. Now, it's time to begin the conversation anew.Join us.

Edit PDFs Without Buying Expensive Software

Betsey Blanche — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:41:00 GMT

Ninety percent of the time, I prefer communicating via email rather than making a phone call, mailing something or (especially) faxing. This is especially true when it comes to applications or other PDF documents. Like the library computers, most individuals only have access to Adobe Reader, rather than a more sophisticated version of the software which allows you to edit and save PDFs.

An easy workaround presents itself in the form of FillAnyPDF. This site allows you to upload a PDF so that you can enter text into blank fields and then save the document. (FYI, you have the option of creating an account or just going straight to editing your document). By doing so, you can simply email the form on to the intended recipient rather than mailing or faxing it. The site also allows you to change font size, blackout, whiteout or highlight text. After entering all your text, click the download button at the bottom of the page and then save the PDF to your computer or memory device of choice.

I will caution you that there is no clear information on the security of the site so you may want to think twice before using it for confidential information. I have, however, seen the site recommended by several blogs which take security into consideration when evaluating a product or service which I find comforting. What other workarounds do you use for editing PDFs? Share your thoughts in the comments section!