Bee Cave staff present baseline budget showing roughly $1.3 million surplus

City Manager Oakley presented a baseline fiscal-year budget that, before adding new departmental requests, leaves the city with roughly a $1.3 million surplus.

"We're starting this budget year out with a $20,790,000 fund balance," Oakley said, outlining the city's reserves and noting policy guidance that the city should maintain roughly 100% of budgeted expenditures in fund balance. She described sales tax as the primary near-term revenue driver and told the council staff proposed a conservative 6% budgeted increase for sales tax receipts.

Oakley said the baseline expenditure projection incorporates non-discretionary items such as TMRS retirement rate changes and debt-service obligations and that, without adding new requests, the baseline would show a 1% overall increase (about $152,000). She spelled out a number of one-time and transfer items, including a $2.0 million economic-development transfer related to a Chapter 380 agreement for the Willie Way project (staff said roughly $1.7 million is earmarked for road construction and $300,000 is contingent on water-quality-pond completion).

The baseline presentation set the stage for department-level requests staff plans to revisit during the council's August and September budget discussions; Oakley emphasized staff is conservative in its asks and that council will finalize which items to include before the Aug. 11 work session where the tax-rate discussion begins.