Page 14 - PowerPoint Presentation

TOWN COUNCIL POLICIES & PRIORITIES
The Town Council’s stated focus for the coming fiscal year are as follows:

 Oversight of development projects to ensure we continue meeting our strategic theme of
“High Quality Planning, Design, & Development”;
 Investment in Westlake Academy to provide our students with a school environment that
supports our strategic theme of “IB Education for All: Preparing Students to Thrive in a Global
Society”; and
 Continued support of public safety efforts to reach our strategic objective of “Preserving
Desirability & Quality of Life” for our residents.

FISCAL & BUDGETARY POLICIES
The Town’s fiscal and budgetary policies address the Town’s operating budgets, revenue
management, expenditure control, fund balance/retained earnings, debt management, grants,
economic development, audits, internal controls, and asset management. These policies are included
in our annual budget document for residents to review and staff to use as a guiding set of principles
each year.

BUDGET PRINCIPLES
The Town’s budget principles for sound fiscal management include:

 Plan, manage, and fund debt service and related service delivery programs;
 Maintain fund balance in accordance with the policy and future obligations;
 Oversee facilities and infrastructure;
 Provide exceptional and responsive public services; and
 Provide competitive employee compensation.

PROPERTY TAX

The proposed municipal property tax rate (or ad valorem rate) will maintain the current adopted
rate of $0.16788 per $100 of assessed valuation. This rate is slightly higher this year ($0.00042) than
the no-new-revenue rate (formerly the “effective tax rate”), which is the total tax rate needed to
generate the same amount of property tax revenue for the Town from the same properties between
the 2020 tax year and the 2021 tax year.

This budget adheres to direction the Council gave to stabilize our ad valorem rate, monitor
expenditures, and direct one-time revenue to our conduit funds – Major Maintenance & Repair,
Vehicle Maintenance & Repair and Capital Improvements. These directives help ensure we plan for
the Town’s financial stability and are better prepared to meet the service delivery expectations of
our community. Our approach to both revenue estimating and expenditure requests continue to
proceed in a fiscally conservative manner without raising the rate for our property owners and still
allow Westlake the ability to exceed expectations of our residents.

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