Amarillo City Council during a budget workshop held last month/Screenshot via City of Amarillo
Amarillo City Council has approved the city’s budget for the 2023/2024 fiscal year following a series of unanimous votes and nearly 2 months of budget workshops.
The new budget totals $531 million and is about 8% larger than the city’s previous budget. The new property tax rate is $0.39195, down slightly from the previous rate of $0.40628. This will still be an effective rate increase for many in the city due to increased property values.
The budget and tax rate are both significantly higher than initially proposed as the council began budget workshops. The initial proposal included an overall budget of $467 million and a tax rate of $0.38600.
The budget includes several fee increases. These include increased fees for drainage, solid waste collection & disposal, sewer, water, environmental health, golf, tennis, aquatics, zoo admission, athletics, and city marshal.
Some budget highlights mentioned during a presentation given by City of Amarillo Interim Deputy City Manager Laura Storrs include:
Funding for 3 new fire district chiefs
Funding for 4 additional police officers and 4 police civilians
$28 million for streets projects
Dedicated dumpster replacement program
$33 million in water & sewer projects
$46 million in drainage projects
$4.5 million working budget for future council priorities
30% TMRS COLA for retirees
Departments set to see the largest budget increases include Police, Fire, Fleet Services, Director of Utilities, Water Production, Wastewater Treatment, Drainage Utility, and Community Development, each of which has been given a budget increase greater than $1.5 million. Percentage-wise, the department with the largest increase is the recently-created City Marshal, which received a 114.71% increase, going from $1 million to $2.2 million.
Six departments are set to see budget cuts of at least a half million. These departments are Public Health, Transit, Parks & Recreation Maintenance, Benefits, General Fund Transfers, and the City Manager. The Public Health Department is set to see the biggest cut percentage-wise, with its $3.5 million cut representing nearly 30% of its 2022/23 budget.
The budget for the city’s Libraries, which became a hot topic during the budgeting process, is set to see a decrease of $168,879, which represents 3.81% of its 2022/23 budget.
A spreadsheet compiled by The Amarillo Pioneer breaking down the budgeted expense totals department by department can be found at this link. The full 2023/24 City of Amarillo budget can be found at this link. More information about the budget and tax rate published by the city can be found at this link.
The new budget will officially go into effect on October 1st.