Page 16 - City of Bedford FY20 Approved Budget

 General Fund

General Fund Revenue - The budget provides funding for continuation of all current
programs and services. Revenue for FY 2019/2020 is budgeted at $37,707,594, an increase
of 7.61% over the FY 2018/2019 adopted budget. Increases have been projected for
property taxes, sales tax, license and permits, and interest income.

 Property taxes – Property taxes make up the largest single revenue source for General
Fund operations. The property tax rate is made up of two segments. The first is the
Operations and Maintenance (O&M) rate. This amount is dedicated to daily operations
of the City that fall within the General Fund. Services such as Police, Fire, Parks and
Recreation, Library, Senior Center, Code Compliance, Inspections, Finance, and
General Governmental functions are included in the General Fund. The second
segment of the tax rate is the Debt Service rate. This is the tax rate that is pledged to
repay long-term debt obligations of the City. The property tax rate is calculated
annually based on property values as submitted to the City by the Tarrant Appraisal
District. The property tax rate is approved by the City Council after state and charter
mandated public hearings.

The tax rate adopted to fund the FY 2019/2020 budget is $0.569000, which is a slight
increase from the adopted tax rate for FY 2018/2019. The number of properties
eligible for tax ceilings increased from 4,177 in 2018 to 4,334 in 2019.

Since 1995, the City of Bedford has collected an additional one-half of one percent in
sales tax for the reduction of property taxes. Sales tax collections vary from year to
year, which can have either a positive or negative impact on the operations and
maintenance tax rate. The sales tax adjustment rate decreased slightly from the 2018
rate of $0.074773 to the 2019 rate of $0.074219.

 Sales tax – Monthly collections vary significantly from historic trends, making it
difficult to forecast future collections. Limited information is available from the Texas
Comptroller of Public Accounts that would give staff the ability to identify patterns.
As a result, staff estimates remain conservative, due to the current economic outlook
and the resulting volatility in sales tax collections. An increase is budgeted for FY
2019/2020 due to the consecutive monthly increases over the last two fiscal years.

 Franchise Fees – This revenue source is sometimes referred to as “street rental fees” or
“right-of-way rental fees” paid by utility companies that install their service lines
within city right-of-way. These fees are calculated in several ways, either on a gross
receipts basis, per access line, per kilowatt hour of power consumed, etc. The
methodology for each utility franchise is somewhat different. This revenue has been
decreased in the upcoming budget due to legislation passed in the 2019 session.

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