On Monday, August 20th, Westlake Town Council held a public meeting to consider the 2019-20 proposed tax rate. During that discussion, staff recommended a slight increase for the coming year which the Council will now consider.
The current tax rate is $0.15600. The proposed tax rate for 2019-2020 is $0.16018. Based on the average value of a Westlake home which is $1.6 million, the average increase from 2018-19 to 2019-20, if adopted, would be $54 annually, or $4.50 a month.
So how is this calculated? The July certified tax roll has been received and the rates have been calculated based on the “Truth in Taxation” criteria. The effective tax rate is $0.14483 per $100 valuation and the rollback tax rate is $0.16018 per $100 valuation. When a proposed rate exceeds the rollback or the effective rate, whichever is lower, the Council shall place a proposal to adopt the rate on the agenda of a future meeting as an action item and hold two public hearings. The proposal shall specify the desired rate. A taxing unit cannot vote to adopt a proposal to increase taxes by an unspecified amount.
It's important to note that during the 8-20-19 property tax/budget regular meeting, no final decisions regarding an increase were made. However, looking forward, two additional public hearings were set to consider the ad valorem rate. Those dates are Monday, August 26th at 5 pm and Monday, September 9th at 5 pm. The budget adoption to set the tax rate would be Monday, September 23rd, also at 5 pm.
To see the entire presentation from the 8-20-19 public hearing, please click on this link. If you have any questions at all about the tax rate proposal, please contact the Town of Westlake Finance Director, Debbie Piper at 817-490-5712, or email her at dpiper@westlake-tx.org.
