Page 9 - City of Bedford FY21 Budget

• TMRS Benefit Expansion
Since November 2009, the City of Bedford elected to participate in the Texas Municipal
Retirement System’s (TMRS) pension plan to enhance its benefit program and to be used
as a recruitment tool in a competitive labor market. However, the package was merely a
base pension plan with no additional benefits to compete with other surrounding entities.
Therefore, this budget expanded the City’s package to include annual updated service
credits at 50% of the base updated service credit, as well as allow for the restricted service
credit for service previously performed as an employee of any entity within the TMRS
system. The total cost of the expansion is an additional $1,320,460 allocated to the budget.

• Perimeter Fence Installation
The Police Department’s Law Enforcement Center will install a new fence to enhance its
security. The total cost for the new fencing is $330,000, with $100,000 being paid from
fund reserves.

• Exhaust System Acquisition
The Fire Department will acquire a vehicle exhaust removal system, called Plymovent, for
Fire Stations 1 and 2. The system will consist of hoses that hook into the exhaust of each
apparatus and discharges the emissions outside of the building. The intent is to remove all
potential carbon monoxide exposures from the work environment of the emergency
personnel. The total cost for adding the Plymovent exhaust system in both stations is
$110,000.

The City’s objective is to provide quality services that reflect the community’s goals and vision
within reasonable fiscal limits. The program of services, which is the City’s annual fiscal budget,
is developed in alignment with the City Council’s strategic plan, as well as the desires of Bedford
residents. The budgeting process seeks to allocate finite resources to maintain quality service
levels. As such, Bedford must continue to assess how the decisions of today impact the ability of
the City to be successful over the long-term.

The state legislature’s passing of Senate Bill 2, which takes effect in FY 2020-2021, emphasizes
the need to consider the City’s long-term fiscal health and sustainability. This new law makes an
array of changes to the property tax and appraisal systems statewide. It includes the requirement
of an automatic election should the City desire to adopt a tax rate that exceeds what was formerly
known as the rollback rate but is now known as the 3.5 percent voter-approval tax rate. In addition,
the City will no longer assign the rate used to generate the same tax levy as the prior year using
similar property values in the new year, as an effective tax rate. Instead, per Senate Bill 2, this is
now known as the no-new-revenue tax rate. In the FY 2020-2021 adopted budget, the voter-
approval rate is $0.571968 per $100 assess valuation (AV). The no-new-revenue tax rate is
$0.562799 per $100 AV, and the adopted tax rate for this fiscal year’s annual operating budget is

$0.569000 per $100 AV.

This budget continues to support the City’s core services, but it is crucial to contemplate the long-
term financial sustainability of the City’s operations. During each budget cycle, the City’s
dependency on property tax revenue continues to grow, almost reaching 50 percent in FY 2020-
2021. Without a diverse revenue stream, it will become imperative to evaluate the long-term
financial sustainability of the City’s operations. Therefore, at some point in the future, the City

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