HP Discusses Taxes, DART Funding
The Highland Park Town Council approved a resolution on Aug. 6 supporting a reduction in the amount of sales and use tax collected by the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority (DART).
Each of DART’s 13 member cities, including Highland Park, contributes one cent of its sales and use tax to DART. In the next fiscal year, HP expects the town’s contribution to total $6.8 million. HP town council members expressed concern in a recent work session that taxpayers aren’t getting their money’s worth from the services DART provides to the town.
HP’s resolution supports reducing cities’ contributed amount to a maximum of three-quarters of a cent.
The council also set a preliminary property tax rate and discussed next year’s proposed budget during its meeting and study session.
The council set a maximum proposed rate of $0.208550 per $100 of taxable assessed value, the highest rate allowed without triggering an election. But this may not be the actual rate that residents end up paying. After a public hearing, the council can approve or lower the rate at its Sept. 3 meeting.
The current property tax rate is $0.220530 on each $100 of assessed valuation.
In the study session following the meeting, the council discussed the proposed fiscal year 2024-25 budget.
In the 2024-25 fiscal year, estimated taxable property values are expected to increase by about $968 million over the July 2023 values. Most of the increase comes from reassessments, and some from new construction.
Fees for services like water, stormwater, sewer, and solid waste collection are all expected to increase. Stormwater is increasing by 16.98%, or about $2.51 for a lot size of 10,000-21,800 square feet.
“The recommended increase to water and sewer rates for FY 2024-25 is 6.5%,” according to the budget plan. “Moreover, the financial plan for the Utility Fund now reflects an annual 3.9% rate adjustment to water rates and a 3% adjustment to sewer rates over the following 9 years.”
Highland Park will also see a 10% increase in building inspection/permit fees and will add five new positions:
- Information system analyst
- Senior building inspector
- Construction (infrastructure) inspector
- Civil engineer
- Public works operations supervisor
The roles are meant to decrease the cost of outsourcing services and ensure systems like automatic alarm monitoring run correctly. The current alarm monitoring system has been having outages, causing dispatchers to manually watch for alarms. The new system proposed in the budget would be an additional $3.60 per month for residents.
The council also discussed the possibility of the town, which is currently debt-free, funding more projects at once and taking on short-term debt. Staff was asked to look at the model of neighboring towns like University Park to see how they manage debt.
