Georgetown City Council Adopts FY 2025 Budget: Infrastructure Investment, Tax Rate Adjustment

The Georgetown City Council adopted the Fiscal Year 2025 budget and property tax rate at its Sept. 10 meeting. The adopted FY 2025 budget totals $879 million and lowers the City’s property tax rate to 36.47 cents.

The City’s property tax rate remains among one of the lowest of all cities in the Austin area with a population greater than 20,000.

Because of increasing property values the 36.47 cents per $100 of valuation rate means the average property tax bill is expected to increase by $32 for the year.

Following rate studies, Georgetown residents and utility customers can expect the following proposed rate increases:

• Water/wastewater rates: 11.75 percent water and 11.25 percent wastewater rate increase for all customer types, or approximately a total monthly increase of $13.25 for a residential customer using 10,000 gallons per month.
• Solid waste rates: 4.5 percent increase for residential customers and 9.5 percent for commercial.
• Streetlight Replacement Fee: $2.40 monthly fee to fund energizing and maintaining streetlights for City residents and businesses.
• Energy Efficiency and Conservation Fee: Increase from 20 cents to $1 per month for Georgetown Electric Utility customers to recover the cost of administering energy conservation programs such as energy audits and rebates. Commercial customers will also pay the per meter per month fee based on rate class.

“In the next fiscal year, residents are going to see a continued investment in the future of Georgetown, including in our transportation and utility infrastructure, as well as customer service and public safety,” Mayor Josh Schroeder said. “This year’s adopted budget addresses the challenges we’ve seen from our rapid growth while maintaining the services our residents expect.”

The proposed budget is online at georgetowntexas.gov/finance. The adopted budget book will be available online later this year.

Major themes of the adopted budget include maintaining services such as public safety, water, and customer services while addressing growth and inflation.

Highlights of the adopted budget include:

• 37 positions in key areas such as water, electric, and public safety
• Responding to pressures from development and growth: The number of building permits has increased compared to FY 2023, and there has been a 30 percent growth in population served by Water Utility since 2020
• Employee recruitment and retention: The budget includes an average merit pay of 4 percent and conducting additional market reviews for City positions.
• Implementation of a 311-like Call Center to help centralize residential calls for City services, streamline processing and reporting of service calls, improve response times, and enhance customer service Citywide.
• Transportation improvements, including Williams Drive, Shell Road, D.B. Wood Road, SE and NE Inner Loop, Stadium Drive, and Rockride Lane.
• Water plant operations staffing, as well as capital improvement projects, including upsizing waterlines, rehabilitating the Dove Springs Wastewater Treatment Plant, expanding the III Forks wastewater plant, and other investments in infrastructure to ensure water demands in the City’s water service area meet current and future growth.

For more information, visit georgetowntexas.gov/finance.