City council members are considering a proposal to lower Allen’s tax rate.
The City of Allen’s Chief Financial Officer, Eric Cannon, outlined the proposed rate drop on August 27 during the second of two public hearings. The decrease would lower the rate from $0.498 to $0.489 per $100 of taxable value—slightly higher than the effective tax rate of $0.486618. For a home appraised at $250,000, the annual city tax would total approximately $1,223, which is about $102 per month.
“We are always trying to bring the best value we possibly can for our taxpayers, while still providing the services our citizens are accustomed to,” said Cannon.
Allen’s total tax intake would still increase due to two factors. First, newly-constructed properties, including everything from residential neighborhoods to corporate headquarters, would add $2.4 million to the tax rolls in 2019. That, coupled with the newly lowered tax rate, results in a net increase of revenue over the previous year’s budget of $1.19 million.
“The goal of our budget is to maintain our current service levels of a growing community while addressing new and aging infrastructure,” said Cannon.
The City of Allen receives a small fraction of the total taxes paid by property owners. For every ten dollars residents are taxed, $2.10 goes to the City of Allen. Allen ISD collects $6.70, Collin County receives $0.80 and $0.40 goes to Collin College.
“We’re making sure we can stay competitive with other cities,” noted Cannon, displaying a chart with the proposed tax rates of nearby cities including Addison ($0.591133), Richardson ($0.62516), Mesquite ($0.734) and Dallas ($0.78).
Property taxes fund slightly more than half of Allen’s proposed General Fund budget for 2019-2020. The remaining balance comes from sales tax, charges for services, franchise fees, licenses and permits, fines and other sources.
Personnel costs are responsible for nearly 65% of the General Fund budget—a ratio in line with other cities and service organizations. The 2019-2020 proposed budget includes 6.48 FTE (full-time equivalent) new staff positions to help serve Allen’s growing population and expanding city facilities and services.
Also included in the proposed General Fund budget is funding for a new Traffic Management Center, new financial accounting software and partial funding for several new police vehicles.
If the proposed budget is approved, the bulk of the city’s General Fund (42.6%) would be spent on public safety, including three new positions in the Police and Fire departments. Culture and recreation—which includes funding for Parks and Recreation and Allen Public Library—represents 27.6% of the proposed General Fund budget. General government (18.6%), public works (6.3%), community development (3.3%) and transfers out (1.6%) make up the balance.
Allen City Council will vote to adopt the final budget and tax rate on September 10.
Watch the August 27 proposed budget and tax rate presentation. (Items 12 and 13)
The Proposed Annual Budget document available online was created on July 23. The Final Budget will reflect these new changes.