On Tuesday, August 20th, Westlake Town Council held a public meeting to consider the 2019-20 proposed ad valorem tax rate where staff recommended a slight increase for the coming year which the Council will now consider. If approved, the average home (valued at $1.6M) would experience an annual increase of approximately $54.00 or $4.50 per month.
So, how does this process work? The Council will conduct two public hearings in which the property tax history for the municipality will be discussed along with our allowable exemptions to the tax rate, and how your property tax is allocated among the taxing entities for our area. The main taxing entities include counties, school districts, hospital districts, junior college districts, and your town. Out of this list, the Town rate is proposed at $0.16018 for the 2019-2020 fiscal year, which will keep us in the bottom percentile for municipal tax rates in the state. This is an increase of $.00418 from the current rate. In general, Westlake retains $.06 for every tax dollar levied for use in maintaining our roads, infrastructure, and providing local service delivery.
It's also important to note that during the August 20th property tax/budget regular meeting, no final decisions regarding an increase were made. However, looking forward, two additional public hearings were set to consider the ad valorem rate. Those dates are Monday, August 26th at 5 pm and Monday, September 9th at 5 pm. The budget adoption to set the tax rate would be Monday, September 23rd, also at 5 pm.
To see the entire presentation from the public hearing, please click on this link. If you have any questions at all about the tax rate proposal, please contact the Town of Westlake Finance Director, Debbie Piper at 817-490-5712, or email her at dpiper@westlake-tx.org.