The City of Richardson will have a $330,788,419 combined operating budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year. The budget includes a 1-cent decrease to the property tax rate and was adopted in August by the City Council. It will go into effect Oct. 1.

In addition to the tax rate decrease to 61.516 cents per $100 appraised value, the budget also maintains the Senior Tax Exemption at $100,000. The $330,788,419 budget is an increase of 5.6 percent, or $17.6 million, over the 2020-21 revised budget. The increase is due in large part to $18 million provided to the City by the federal American Rescue Plan.

The budget focuses on key initiatives including providing and restoring core services, investing in infrastructure, supporting neighborhoods, providing for community engagements and placemaking, and planning and preparing for the future.

“The new environment created from the COVID-19 crisis has brought some economic improvements balanced with some financial realities,” said Richardson City Manager Dan Johnson. “We are seeing strengths in some sectors and weaknesses in others, giving us caution as we prepare our spending priorities for the coming year. Our goal is to reactivate programs, projects and services in a measured way to avoid overexposing our budget obligations during this dawn of the post-pandemic economy.”

Infrastructure maintenance is a priority in the budget, which includes about $6.3 million for street/alley maintenance and another $449,597 for park maintenance projects. The budget also includes $6.19 million through a combination of cash and short-term debt for the replacement of fire equipment, general equipment, vehicles and computer equipment.

The budget also allows the City to undo some changes that were necessary due to the coronavirus. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City has been very conservative with its spending, freezing open positions, deferring facility maintenance items and reducing training. With the 2021-22 budget, the City has been able to unfreeze some positions and is gradually increasing training, although it is still not at pre-pandemic levels.

The City has also made pay plan changes that were necessary due to a challenging labor market. Changes have been made to the pay scale for frontline workers in departments such as Solid Waste to attract and retain employees and ensure a high level of service is maintained.

For more information on the 2021- 22 budget, visit www.cor.net/budget.

Additional highlights of the 2021-22 budget include:

  • Certified Property Tax Roll increase of 3.54 percent
  • Building fund balance to assist with economic uncertainties
  • Beginning pay-as-you-go initiative for the replacement of computer hardware that was previously funded through short-term debt
  • Sales Tax forecast of 12.2 percent below estimated year-end 2020-21 collections
  • Market and merit-based compensation adjustments are budgeted for City employees
  • Implementing a phased approach to community events