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Monday’s final approval of a $368.67 million budget for fiscal year 2022-23 by New Braunfels City Council members means additional police officers and firefighters to respond to emergency calls, new public safety equipment, city employee compensation increases and a property tax rate reduction.

Funding is included to add four additional police officers, two school resource officers, a crime analyst and a part-time training division position.

The proposed budget includes six additional firefighters that will eventually be assigned to the under-construction Fire Station No. 7. The proposed budget also includes a civilian fire inspector to improve and maintain inspection schedules.

“There is a need throughout the organization for additional staffing resources,” City Manager Robert Camareno said. “We are growing, and with that growth comes an increase in the demand for the services that we provide. So I think the (approved) budget strikes a balance in trying to address the needs in the Police and Fire departments and other departments across the organization.”

The proposal allows for staff augmentation in the Transportation and Capital Improvements, Information Technology, Human Resources, Finance, Communications, Economic Development and Parks and Recreation departments, as well as the Municipal Court, New Braunfels National Airport and the Westside Community Center.

Last month, council members approved a $10 million tax note to support public safety equipment and initiatives that were initially considered for the 2023 bond program, allowing the city to initiate the purchase of the equipment and projects earlier to mitigate supply chain concerns and cost increases.

The equipment and initiatives supported by the tax note include public safety radio replacement, ladder truck replacement for the Fire Department, the renovation and expansion of Fire Station No. 5 and replacement of a police command vehicle.

A total of $1.1 million is included to support one-time equipment and initiatives for the Fire Department.

The most significant investment is three squad/hybrid use trucks deployed at the three busiest fire stations in the city, providing considerable relief to the department’s engine and ladder fleet. An additional ambulance remount at a cost of $205,000 is also included in the budget.

In the general fund, $187,000 is allocated to support various EMS and specialized response equipment such as IV pumps, automated external defibrillators, ventilators, rope/rescue gear and dive gear.

The Police Department’s budget also includes about $1 million in one-time equipment and initiatives, including replacing the body-worn camera inventory, purchasing a Truck-Mounted Attenuator to block traffic during traffic accidents and other traffic control incidents, and SWAT and patrol-related equipment.

The budget also includes a 7% cost-of-living adjustment for all city employees, as well as step plan increases for uniformed employees and targeted market increases for non-uniform employees.

“Compensation is equally important so that we retain the talent that we have in the organization, while also at the same time be able to recruit talent to fill either new positions or vacancies that we have in the organization,” Camareno said. “Through the council’s support, we will be providing pay increases for staff members. Also, we’re not increasing health insurance premiums because of the fact that our self-insurance fund — we’re able to recover all the costs necessary for that.”

The budget also comes with the largest tax rate decrease since 1996 to help support it. However, for some taxpayers, a substantial increase in assessed property values could wipe out any reduction of taxes a tax rate decrease might provide.

Under the proposed tax rate, however, single-family homes with a homestead exemption are expected to see a decrease in property taxes paid to the city.

City officials calculated the budget with a combined property tax rate of 41.3935 cents per $100 assessed property valuation, a reduction of about 6.1 cents from the current tax rate of 47.5374 cents.

The 2022 no-new-revenue tax rate, previously known as the effective tax rate, is 39.0959 cents, and the voter approval tax rate is 42.3361 cents.

The proposed rate for operations and maintenance, the city’s primary operating fund, is 20.5 cents, a decrease of about 4.2 cents from fiscal year 2021.

Senate Bill 2, passed by state lawmakers in 2019, prevents public entities from raising taxes by more than 3.5% annually to support the operation and maintenance rate without voter approval.

The proposed interest and sinking rate, used for debt service, is 20.8935 cents, a decrease of about 1.9 cents from the 2021 rate.

In addition to approving the budget and tax rate, council members also approved a resolution ratifying the increase in revenue generated by the 2022 property tax rate.

The resolution acknowledges that adopting the budget requires raising more revenue from property tax revenue than in the previous year.

The budget will raise more total property taxes than last year’s budget by about $4.1 million or 10.2%. Of that amount, $1.75 million is tax revenue generated from new property added to the tax roll this year.

The tax rate is effectively 5.9% more than the no new revenue tax rate, the rate required to collect the same amount of revenue on the same properties that were on the rolls last year.

All city funds will total $368,673,416, combining $312,090,024 in budgeted expenditures with $56,583,392 in year-ending fund balance, an increase of about $46.3 million from the current adopted budget.

That increase is driven by multiple factors, such as one-time funding to support various equipment and initiatives in the general fund of about $12 million. In addition, the city’s grant fund also includes the allocation of all active and pending grants, totaling nearly $27 million.

The proposed budget includes $175,623,890 in total revenue, an increase of about $21 million compared to last fiscal year. The increase is driven by several factors, such as the continued return to pre-pandemic revenue in the general fund, enterprise funds and other special revenue funds — projected state and federal revenue to offset active and awarded grants.

Available funds to support the budget include $108,475,593 in capital reserves and $84,573,933 in reserves.

Expenditures for all funds come to $312,090,024, an increase of about $39 million compared to the last fiscal year. That growth is driven by several factors, such as one-time funding in the general fund and the total allocation of all active and pending grant-related expenditures.

The budget allocates all available capital funds, a large portion of which will not be spent on projects for two to three years. The increase in debt service is associated with the remaining 2013 and 2019 bonds as well as a recently approved $10 million public safety tax note.

Camareno added that conservative budgeting since the onset of the pandemic allows for a significant investment in one-time equipment, technology and initiatives for the upcoming fiscal year.

According to city officials, the higher than anticipated growth in taxable values has provided sufficient borrowing capacity at the proposed lower rate to support the proposed $10 million public safety tax note and the proposed 2023 bond program.

The city’s fund balance policy requires that the general fund maintain a fund balance of at least 25% or three months of operating costs. The overall proposed budget would retain a 30% fund balance.

Adjusted city appraisals of certified values in Comal and Guadalupe counties increased from $10.23 billion in 2021 to $12.28 billion this year, with taxable values rising from $8.72 billion to $10.72 billion.

General fund revenues, which support the majority of the city’s core services, are projected at about $88.4 million, an increase of about $9 million from the previous year, driven by multiple factors such as budget to budget growth in sales taxes and the total recovery and growth of revenue sources impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic such as Das Rec, parks and recreation and interest earnings.

General fund expenditures are projected at $100.5 million, an increase of about $10.1 million from the previous fiscal year, driven by increased one-time investments of about $12.6 million, additional positions to support current demands for services, planned compensation increases for all city employees, inflationary adjustments to operating budgets as well as full-year funding for compensation increases and positions added in fiscal year 2022.

Sales taxes, property taxes and other taxes and franchise fees make up nearly 76% of all general fund revenue sources.

Capital improvement projects, general government and public safety comprise the largest slices of budgeted general fund expenditures.

Proposed expenditures for other funds are as follows: capital funds, $111,048,092; special revenue funds, $46,447,617; debt service fund, $25,752,596; enterprise funds $19,744,990; and internal service funds, $8,480,870.

A significant majority of capital funds will not be spent until fiscal years 2024 to 2026, when several large bond projects are scheduled to occur.

To support the city’s drainage division, $280,000 is included to replace and upgrade multiple tractor and shredder attachments. With this additional equipment, city officials anticipate that existing crews will be able to provide mowing services along critical Texas Department of Transportation right-of-way areas and medians such as Farm-to-Market Road 306 and Loop 337.

The proposal also includes $115,000 to support the rehabilitation of the Landa Park Aquatics Complex parking lot. The repaving funding is part of an overall stormwater treatment basin project. The project’s anticipated cost is about $900,000, most of which will be federally funded through the city’s Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Plan program.

Property taxes paid to the city represent about 22% of the overall property tax bill, with the remaining portion paid to the respective school district and county.

A copy of the approved budget is available on the city website at www.newbraunfels.gov.

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