Like so many other costs, city rates and fees are going up in the upcoming fiscal year, which starts in October. Overall, the projected yearly impact of all the fee increases will be $417 for the average homeowner in Austin.
Those increases include fees for water, trash service, drainage, the Clean Community Fee and the Transportation User fee. The monthly charge from Austin Energy will also increase slightly, but the utility is lowering the overall customer bill by reducing the amount per kilowatt-hour used. (For example, a customer using 860 KWh of electricity per month will save about $59 next year.)
Austin Resource Recovery has four different sizes of trash carts. The smallest one, 24-gallons, will cost $28.50 per month next year, up from the current charge of $26.20. The largest cart holds 96 gallons. Currently the charge for that cart is $58.40 per month. That charge will increase to $64.10 per month, the largest increase among the cart sizes. Austin Resource Recovery will exchange your cart for a larger or smaller one if you ask.
The cost of parking in the wrong spot will also go up, but just a little. The old rate for non-consent towing for an average vehicle was $272. The new rate adopted by Council will be $275.
The city will also be adding a fee for tickets to private events held in Austin parks. Under a resolution approved by Council as part of the budget, the city manager will establish a Parks Maintenance Fund and keep Council updated on collections and expenses of the fund. In the past, such fees would have been fed directly into the city’s General Fund. But under the direction of the sponsors of the budget item, Council members Ryan Alter, Paige Ellis, Marc Duchen, and Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes, the money will go to the Parks and Recreation Department.
For developers, fees are going up considerably more than the fees for residents. The biggest increase is in the Barton Springs Zone site plan review fee, which is currently $633. That fee will go up more than 500 percent, with the new fee set at $3,890. The fee for an environmental re-inspection of a pond will go up to $500 on October 1. The current fee is $242. The initial floodplain review for a residential building plan is going up from $64 to $110. All other development fees are also going up.
Property taxes are also going up. The amount they will increase is in the hands of voters who turn out for the November 4 election. If those voters approve a 5-cent increase per $100 valuation for property owners, the projected median property tax on a non-senior homestead valued at $503,000 will increase by nearly $303 from $1969 to $2272 annually.
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