Page 20 - Southlake FY23 Budget

TRAnSmITTAL LETTER

Service Delivery Excellence

The City of Southlake is committed to providing residents, businesses, and visitors with high quality, high value
public services.

Figure 5 is the City of Southlake’s organizational chart, showing the departments and reporting relationships.
Strategy execution is a fundamental part of the City’s operations. Department Directors regularly review progress
toward meeting performance targets, including assessments of key accountability indicators (performance
measures) and success in addressing Council-identified critical business outcomes.

Each department has its own strategy map built around the department’s core services and a performance
scorecard that includes performance measures and targets that drive business decisions (see City Department
Overview section for more information). City leadership also gives attention to meeting performance expectations
in accordance with the City’s values: Integrity, Innovation, Accountability, Commitment to Excellence, and
Teamwork.

Financial Information and Fund Summaries

The City’s budget is made up of specific “funds” to account for the revenue and expenditures that support
operations. Funds also account for debt incurred for capital improvements. There are funds supported by tax
revenue, while others are supported by fees that have been put into place to cover the cost of the service. Some
funds are restricted for specific purposes, while others offer more spending flexibility.

This letter is organized to describe each fund and to highlight key aspects of the budget for each.

General Fund

The General Fund is the city’s principle operating fund, and is supported by property tax, sales tax, fees, and other
revenues. These revenues may be used for a variety of purposes, and this budget accounts for core City services
such as police and fire protection, engineering, planning, finance, and administrative oversight.

Tax rate. The FY 2023 proposed budget incorporates a tax rate of $0.36 per $100 valuation, reducing the rate
by three cents. The tax rate of $0.36 is split between General Fund operations and debt service. The allocation
for FY 2023 is $0.295 for general operations and $0.065 for debt service. The reduction has been taken from the
operations part of the rate.

The ongoing use of the 20% homestead exemption will complement the current over-65 exemption of $75,000,
disabled exemption of $75,000, and the over-65 tax freeze. These exemptions offer additional tax relief.

A 20% homestead exemption will reduce an average-valued home in Southlake by $176,460. The property owner
of an average-valued home will see the equivalent of a tax rate reduction of approximately seven cents per $100
valuation with the exemption applied.

With the homestead exemption in place, and considering the tax rate reduction, the equivalent residential tax rate
on an average-valued home is $0.288.

Taxable value. Figure 6 shows the change in taxable value from FY 2022 and documents the impact of new
construction on the values for FY 2023. Note that the value shown in the table is net of the value assigned to Tax
Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) #1. For FY 2023, TIRZ taxable value is $534,104,216. The taxable value shown
reflects the tax rate decrease and excludes the value related to the City’s homestead and other exemptions.

BUDGET BOOK | FY 2023 City of Southlake 19
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