Council Holds First Public Hearing on Tax Rate and Budget
Published:
<< Back to NewsFri 9/4/20
At a Special Meeting on Tuesday, September 1, the City Council held the first of two public hearings on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 tax rate and budget. At the August Budget Work Sessions, Council gave direction to staff to use a tax rate for FY 2021 of $0.616878 per $100 of valuation, which was slightly higher than the tax rate proposed in the City Manager's proposed budget. The rate of $0.616878 per $100 of valuation is higher than last year’s adopted rate of $0.583500 per $100 of valuation, but does not exceed the no-new-revenue tax rate, which is the tax rate that will raise the same amount of property tax revenue for the Town from the same properties in both the 2019 tax year and the 2020 tax year. A calculation of Addison’s no-new-revenue tax rate, voter-approval tax rate, and de minimus rate was published in the Dallas Morning News on August 29, 2020, but is also available on the Town’s website here.
Due to an increase in the number of property tax value protests and operational disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dallas County Appraisal District (DCAD) was unable to provide a final certified tax roll before the City Manager was required to submit his budget to Council on July 31. DCAD instead provided the Town with a certified estimate, which was far below actual anticipated values so the Town used an internal estimate of values to calculate the proposed tax rate. Addison received the certified tax values from DCAD on August 20 and they totaled $4,925,943,024, which is just over $62 million more than the Town’s internal estimate.
In addition, since the proposed budget was submitted to Council, the Town also learned that health care insurance rates will not increase next year. The proposed budget anticipated a 5% increase.
Based on the new information regarding health care costs and the fact that taxable values were higher than estimated, Council discussed and directed staff to lower the tax rate from $0.616878 per $100 of assessed value to $0.608676 per $100 of assessed value at the September 1 meeting.
The average taxable home value in Addison is $335,597, which would generate a tax bill of $2,043 at a tax rate of $0.608676 per $100 of assessed value. Last year, the average taxable home value was $329,891 which generated a tax bill of $1,925. The average taxpayer would pay about $118 more in property taxes than last year at the rate discussed by Council at the September 1 meeting. Individual taxes may increase or decrease depending on the change in the taxable value of your property.
A property owner’s total property tax bill is impacted by the tax rates and exemptions adopted by other taxing entities such as the Dallas County, the Dallas Independent School District, the Dallas County Community College District, and Parkland Hospital. Taxes paid by Addison homeowners to the city equal approximately 24% of their total tax bill.
