Little Elm is still a rapidly growing community and with that comes a tremendous number of challenges, but also outstanding opportunity. With this growth, there are new sources and higher amounts of revenue to be allocated in the budget, but there is also a mounting list of needs for programs and services to accommodate the growth and meet the expectations of the community.
Town staff develops the operating and capital budgets so that strategic goals and long-term objectives defined in the Town Council’s adopted Strategic Plan are achieved. This Strategic Plan, which was approved in 2013 and updated in 2015, 2017, and 2019, sets the vision and charts the course for the community. It is staff’s job to move in that direction through budgeting and project implementation. As we expected, all of the growth and constant change in the area conditions have changed certain needs and assumptions in the planning years and those were addressed in the new budget. The greatest value in the financial plan is that this multi-year approach lets us see how the spending decisions of today will impact the budget in the future and ensure that we can sustain our services.
The total Fiscal Year 2020 budget, including all funds and transfers, is $99,197,631 compared to $78,202,553 initially budgeted in 2019. The budget for all funds will increase by $20,995,078, or 27 percent over Fiscal Year 2019. From an operational perspective, the budget will increase by $6,214,096 or 12 percent over Fiscal Year 2019. Fiscal Year 2020 total expenditures are greater than the total revenues within the town-wide budget by $22,928,818. The Capital Project funds located within the General Governmental and Enterprise Utility classifications have budgeted expenditures of $24,801,694, and $27,802,143 is the available beginning fund balance being spent on projects in addition to revenue in Fiscal year 2020 of $2,400,000. Click Here for 2020-2024 Budget and Financial Plan.
ADOPTED TAX RATES:
| FY 2016-2017 | FY 2017-2018 | FY 2018-2019 | FY 2019-2020 |
Property Tax Rate | $0.661687 | $0.657671 | $0.649900 | $0.649900
|
Effective Rate | $0.601849 | $0.601878 | $0.615367 | $0.630515
|
Effective M&O Rate | $0.433931 | $0.449249 | $0.450470 | $0.459835
|
Rollback Tax Rate | $0.634601 | $0.657671 | $0.656976 | $0.650647
|
M & O Rate | $0.495731 | $0.485188 | $0.479431 | $0.495874
|
Debt Rate | $0.165956 | $0.172483 | $0.170469 | $0.154026
|
PUBLIC NOTICE REQUIRED UPON ADOPTION OF THE BUDGET:
The Town Of Little Elm, Texas Adopted A Tax Rate That Will Raise More Taxes For Maintenance And Operations Than Last Year's Tax Rate; And The Tax Rate Will Effectively Be Raised By 7.8 Percent And Will Raise Taxes For Maintenance And Operations On A $100,000 Home By Approximately $36.04.