Page 80 - City of Bedford FY20 Approved Budget

REVENUE DESCRIPTIONS AND PROJECTIONS

GENERAL FUND

TAXES

Several categories of taxes are received by the City of Bedford. These include property taxes,
sales taxes and franchise taxes in the General Fund.

Property taxes are assessed on real and personal property based on the value of the property on
January 1 of each year. Property tax revenues have varied somewhat over the last several fiscal
years. The fiscal year tax rate for 2019-2020 for the City of Bedford is $0.569000 per $100
valuation. This rate is comprised of a debt rate of $0.191591 and maintenance and operations
rate of $0.377409. The 2018-2019 tax rate was $0.561862 per $100 valuation and was comprised
of a debt rate of $0.217727 and maintenance and operations rate of $0.344135.

The appraisal of property within the City is the responsibility of the Tarrant Appraisal District.
Excluding agricultural and open-space land, which may be taxed on the basis of productive
capacity, the Appraisal District is required under the Property Tax Code to appraise all property
within the District on the basis of 100% of its market value. Taxes become due October 1 of the
appraisal year and become delinquent on February 1 of the following year.

Sales tax is collected by the State from the sale of goods and services. The General Fund
receives 1% of each dollar taxed within the City. In January of 1995, the citizens of Bedford
voted to adopt an additional sales and use tax within the City to reduce the property tax. This
additional 0.5% became effective in October of 1995. Sales tax revenue increased by $600,000
from the FY 2018-2019 budget as monthly collections have seen steady growth.

Franchise taxes are collected from utilities and are fees charged for the continued use of public
right-of-way. The fee structure varies from a percentage of gross receipts to a unit fee based on
the number of connections within the city limits. Franchise revenue represents 7.54% of total
General Fund revenue, and 3.75% of the overall revenue for the city. Franchise taxes continue to
be monitored closely due to the deregulation of the telephone industry, significant fluctuations in
natural gas prices and implementation of electric deregulation. Due to recent legislative changes
on how telecommunication and cable industries pay franchise taxes, the budget has been reduced
for those revenue accounts by $405,000.

INTERGOVERNMENTAL REVENUE

The City of Bedford is fortunate to participate in a number of joint ventures with surrounding
communities to provide joint services. Programs such as the school resource officers and Teen
Court are examples of these types of programs. Revenue in this category is comprised of
contributions from the various entities that share services with the City of Bedford.

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