Property Tax Revenue to Help Pay for Street Repairs In San Angelo

SAN ANGELO – Keeping a city up and running is no easy feat and for a place the size of San Angelo, the price tag is nearly $80 million per year.  Funding to pay for city services comes from property tax, sales tax, and user fees. 

On Tuesday, the San Angelo city council voted unanimously to approve a budget that will fund the city for the next fiscal year –– including a specific line item to fix the streets of the city. These funds will be an addition to the grants and investments that are funding the multiple projects currently underway,

For the eighth year in a row, the city of San Angelo property tax rate will remain at 0.776 percent  –– but this year's budget will specifically allocate 0.006 percent to a street repair fund. Approximately $325,000 will be collected this year for the street repair.

Even though the tax rate has remained the same for years, homeowners may have experienced an increase in their taxes over the last few years because of the increase in property value – not including taxes collected by the county and school district.

According to the data available on the Tom Green County Appraisal District website, a home currently for sale in San Angelo for $100,000 will be taxed approximately $506 this year –– compared to the $402 in 2018. Over the past year, property values increased by 2.25 percent in San Angelo.

According to the Director of Finance for the City of San Angelo, Tina Dierschke, the city is expected to receive $37.3 million in property tax revenue during the next fiscal year –– a 2.30 percent increase from the previous year. The projected figure includes $661,346 in tax revenue from new properties added to the tax roll.

The projected sales tax revenue for the new fiscal year is expected to reach at least $20.3 million –– a 5% decrease from the sales tax collected in 2020. While the pandemic impacted the local economy last year, the City of San Angelo collected $3 million over the projected figure.

"Last year we budgeted very conservatively because we were in the middle of covid, With that conservative budgeting through this fiscal year, we actually saw revenue in excess of our sales tax budget of almost three million dollars," said Dierschke.

Sales and property taxes revenue is responsible for covering the cost of public safety, which budgets $44.9 million per year. This year's budget will also include a 5 percent raise for police officers and firefighters.

City employees will also receive a 3 percent raise and implementation of loyalty pay.