Mayor's Corner

The City Council recently held its annual budget workshop, preparing for the new budget year that starts in October. I don’t have to tell anyone that these are challenging economic times. Money is tight for many Lewisville families, causing personal and business spending to be significantly down. This decreased spending, as well as other economic factors, lowers city revenues, resulting in a tight year for the City, also. At the workshop, city staff presented information about projected revenue and expenses for next year. City Manager Claude King and his team have done an excellent job once again of finding ways to use limited resources while still moving forward on the goals and priorities set by the Council. Next year will be the leanest in quite some time. Revenue to the city is down in many areas, including sales tax, hotel tax, permit fees, development fees and more. Overally, property value dropped around 2.5 percent, mainly due to a decrease in the value of commercial property. The City, however, is still seeing some new growth with $187 million being added to the roll this year. The Council is committed to maintaining the current property tax rate, something that a lot of North Texas cities are not going to be able to do this year. Maintaining the current property tax rate but applying it to a smaller base of taxable property value means we will be trying to get the city’s work done next year with less money. There are some tough choices to be made. I want to assure our residents that the Council is not going to lower the quality of services that you all enjoy -- we are not going to cut back on police patrols and fire protection, code enforcement, streets maintenance, park facilities, library hours, or any of the other cuts that some cities are having to make in order to balance their budgets. Council actually is adding a code enforcement officer to focus on enhancing the appearance of our neighborhoods. We also are not laying off workers or implementing furloughs. We are having to make a few cuts that the Council would prefer not to make, but those are the decisions that all of you elected all of us to make. We are freezing five vacant city jobs and holding off on some purchases in order to reach our financial targets without taking our eyes off the ultimate goal of building a better Lewisville for your families and your businesses. Residents have another opportunity in September to provide their input into the budget process, and I encourage you to do so. I am pleased by the hard work put in by council and staff to come up with a balanced budget that cuts spending without cutting service levels. My promise to you, on behalf of the entire City Council, is that we will do our very best to get through these tight economic times without reducing the services that you all have come to expect and enjoy.

Updated last on 08/18/2009