With budget season coming up, the City of Fairfield held an initial workshop last week to discuss three important elements: priorities, revenue and capital improvements.

Councilmen named the following as high priorities for the next fiscal year:

–City Hall Building renovation/purchase

–Police Department staffing

–Street Maintenance projects

–Management Plan for Equipment (repair/replace)

–Revitalizing Downtown

–Park Restroom Facilities

City Administrator Nate Smith gave a presentation on the City’s revenue.

According to the report, sales tax receipts are slightly below budgeted amounts, but higher than the previous year. And, while the audited fund balance dropped slightly, it has stabilized.

Smith credited the staff for an excellent job of curbing spending. “I am really pleased, really impressed,” he said.

In regards to property tax, Smith stated that while preliminary valuation from Freestone Central Appraisal District is 13% lower than the previous year, certified valuation is expected to rise between 5% to 10% higher.

Thus, certified valuation is expected to be between $186 million and $194 million for the City of Fairfield.

In his report, Smith outlined calculations for the required tax rate based on three revenue scenarios:

–preliminary valuation

–preliminary valuation plus 5%

–preliminary valuation plus 10%

The required tax rate in these scenarios ranged from 0.388 to 0.426 – each of which is lower than the current tax rate of 0.432 for the City of Fairfield.

When compared to neighboring cities, Fairfield has the lowest tax rate around.

Within an hour’s drive, the closest to matching Fairfield’s tax rate would be 0.480 for the City of Rusk. One of the highest would be 0.851 for the City of Mexia.

In fact, when looking at Texas cities with a similar population, the average tax rate is 0.521 to Fairfield’s 0.432.

In addition to tax rates, City Administrator Smith also looked at total debt reported.

With the recent retirement of the TDCJ Bond, the City of Fairfield currently has only $407,716 in total debt. In contrast, the average total debt for comparable sized cities is $5,433,058.

Read the City Administrator’s complete presentation here.

Finally, a conference call was conducted with bond counsel, Robert Traylor of RBC Capitol Markets, regarding Certificates of Obligation Fairfield has been considering in order to fund utility improvements and other projects.

The company analyzed three scenarios, each of which, according to Traylor, were achievable without the need to increase the tax rate.

–Scenario 1 would entail a $2.65 million Certificate of Obligation during the 2019-20 fiscal year.

–Scenario 2 would be a $4 million Certificate of Obligation during the 2019-20 fiscal year.

–Scenario 3 would involve two Certificates of Obligation, $2.65 million in 2019 and $2 million in 2021.

As the meeting adjourned, Councilman Landis Bayless complimented the City Administrator for gathering the much-needed information, stating, “This is exactly what I have been looking for.”

All were in attendance for the Tuesday, June 18, 2019 workshop with the exception of Councilman David Steward.

Additional budget workshops will be scheduled over the next several months.

Fairfield Council met in Regular Session on Tuesday, June 25, 2019. Stay tuned for news coverage in next week’s edition.