City Manager Morrison has already said that he intends to run the city next year on the basis of the current ad valorum tax rate. Given the economic and political climate, he couldn't easily make any other decision.
What worries me is what direction we will have to go in future years. We have two neighbors that might provide a hint: Pflugerville (south and east of Round Rock) has lowered its tax rate in each of the last several years; Austin can't fund its increased costs at the current tax rate.
I hope someone in city government is looking at these two (and many more) examples and trying to figure out what any of them portend for Killeen. Growth in Pflugerville is almost entirely suburban and largely funded by impact fees; growth in Austin is more industrial and involved tax abatements amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. Does Killeen fit either of these models? Does it fit somewhere in between? When we get done with this budge cycle, I think we need to start figuring that out.
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