City Council Preview – August 7, 2012
We get started on Tuesday with a Work Session at 3pm, followed by a Regular Session at 6:30pm – all at the main City Hall at 215 E. McKinney Street. Click here to see the agenda along with back-up information. Here are some items that might be of interest to you…
DENTON COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE
The Denton Plan is the key document determining the direction of the city for the next 20 years. If you have ever had an opinion about the direction of the city, what it needs, how to make it better, and what you think would make Denton a great place to live, work, and play, you NEED to get involved in this process. Things get kicked-off this Thursday night at 6:30pm at the Center for Visual Arts (corner of Hickory and Bell, just near the Downtown Transit Center). If you haven’t yet been to the Plan website, go here – and get connected to them on the various social networks in order to keep up with the progress.
During our meeting, we will get a chance to meet the consultant team and hear more about plans to involve the community in the process of updating the Plan.
BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS
I have posted at length about this process here. Council will be finalizing their nominees and we will vote on those during the regular meeting.
MORE ON THE BUDGET
Council will have another chance to review and ask questions about the proposed budget. For more info on the budget, see my earlier post about it here. Nothing is finalized until council votes on it at our September 11 council meeting, so now is the time to chime in. Take a look and let me know your thoughts.
WE AREN’T RAISING TAXES, YET WE ARE INFORMING VOTERS OF A TAX INCREASE?
An item on our agenda is a vote for a proposal that would give the public notice of a tax increase. At the same time, our budget boasts “no tax rate increase.” How does all this jive? To help you understand this, I am posting an explanation below from the backup material for this meeting…
The truth-in-taxation guidelines require taxing entities to calculate and publish their effective and rollback tax rates. The effective rate is the calculated rate that would provide the taxing unit approximately the same amount of revenue it received in the previous year on properties taxed in both years. This rate excludes taxes on properties no longer in the taxing unit and also excludes any growth due to new property values. The City of Denton’s 2012 effective rate is $0.68046/$100 valuation.
The rollback rate divides the total property tax revenue into support for maintenance and operations (M&O) taxes and debt service taxes. It provides approximately the same amount to revenue it spent in the previous year for maintenance and operations expenses, plus an extra eight percent. If a taxing unit adopts a tax rate higher than the rollback rate, the voters have the option to petition for an election to limit the size of the tax increase. The City of Denton’s 2012 rollback rate is $0.73218/$100 valuation.
The City Manager’s FY 2012-13 Proposed Budget recommended a tax rate of $0.68975 per $100 of valuation, and this rate is $0.00929 above the effective rate. If the City Council considers adopting a tax rate that is higher than the recommended effective rate, state law requires the governing body to vote to place a proposal to adopt the rate on an agenda. In addition, state law requires that two public hearings be held on the proposed tax increase, with the second hearing occurring three to 14 days after the first. Publication of quarter-page notices (“Notice of Public Hearing on Tax Increase”) informing the public of the hearings and the publication of a quarter-page notice (“Notice of Tax Revenue Increase”) prior to the adoption of the tax rate are also required.
PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED STREET BOND ELECTION
I have talked about this ongoing issue at length on this post. You will see all the info on the recommended streets, cost of projects, and other details all broken down by council district. Because we are hoping to go to the voters in November (the same day as the Presidential Election on Tuesday, the 6th), we need to decide how the proposition for the bond proposal will look on the ballot.
You might recall that there has been a discussion related to Public Art financing as part of this bond program. This can be traced back to a 2006 City Council Resolution asking that 2-4% of all future bond programs be dedicated to Public Art. It has been a trick to see how that policy is supposed to work in a clear, single-issue bond election such as this one. Council has agreed to ask for no more than 2% of this bond issue (or $400,000, given the total bond package is $20 million). At issue is whether we put this altogether as a single bond proposition or split the streets and art funding into two separate bond propositions – each one having to rise and fall as individual votes. What do you think?
That’s about it – as always, if you have thoughts, feedback, or concerns, do not hesitate to contact me at kevin.roden@cityofdenton.com or 940.206.5239.