Page 109 - Hurst FY20 Approved Budget

GENERAL FUND

The General Fund is the primary operating fund of the City. The General Fund is used to
account for all revenues and expenditures not accounted for in other designated funds. It
receives a greater variety and amount of revenues and finances a wider range of
governmental activities than any other fund. The General Fund is primarily supported by
the ad valorem tax, general sales tax, franchise taxes, licenses and permits fees, fines and
miscellaneous revenue sources. General Fund expenditures support the following major
functions: legislative and judicial services, administration, general services, human
resources, fiscal services, police, fire, public works and community services. All programs
which are justified, efficient and serve the needs of the community are adequately funded.
Service levels are increased substantially through indirect participation in the General Fund
by the Half-Cent Sales Tax Fund and the Anti-Crime Tax Fund. The major consideration in
budgeting revenues is the increase or decrease in property values, which comprise the ad
valorem tax base. For the 2019-2020 budget year, taxable property values increased by
8.97%. Due to this increase in values, the city approved a tax rate of $.597299 cents which
is above the effective tax rate of $0.544839 and equal to the rollback rate of $0.597299 per
$100 valuation. The effective tax rate represents the rate necessary to generate the same
property tax revenue as in the prior year. Please visit the Texas Comptroller’s website at
www.comptroller.texas.gov for more information on the effective tax rate and other topics
associated with the city’s collection of property taxes. Additional tax rate analysis is
located in this section of the budget. An activity schedule for each function is also included
in this section. Included for each operational area is a summary of expenditures, a
personnel schedule, mission statement, division description, prior year results and
accomplishments, future initiatives, goals, objectives, and performance measures. Line
Item Detail and Capital Outlay by Program are not provided in this budget document. The
Budget Division or Public Information Division will provide a 2019-2020 line item and capital
outlay detail budget upon request. The information can also be found on the City’s website
at www.hursttx.gov.

93