Allen Neighbor, Vol. 1, No. 1
Allen City Council approves 2025 budget, sets tax rate | AISD Bond 2024: Largest of three propositions includes multipurpose facility, campus renovations | City utility rates will increase Oct. 1
Both Allen ISD and the city of Allen are at their lowest tax rates since 1993, but thanks to legislative changes in 2019, the November Allen ISD Bond 2024 ballot language and recent city council tax rate ordinance language obfuscate this fact. Below, I attempt to un-obscure and explain.
Also below, please note that through Sept. 30 you can contribute peanut butter to Allen’s collection for the North Texas Food Bank. I think I’ll add some extra jars to my next grocery order so my kids can participate. Learn more at cityofallen.org/pbdrive.
Allen City Council approves 2025 budget, sets tax rate
Allen City Council members on Sept. 10 approved the city’s annual budget and set the tax rate. Those two actions are pretty much the most basic functions of city government.
The rate adopted was $0.4175 per $100, which is effectively a 6.45 percent increase in the total revenue over what the city took in last year. Last year’s tax rate was $0.4205 per $100, so there was a slight decrease in the adopted rate.
City staff initially proposed a tax rate of $0.4189 per $100 of valuation for fiscal year 2025 which begins Oct. 1, but council members said in budget workshops that they felt the city could get to a lower rate.
The approved budget total was $348,805,879. (I hope to dig into that more in upcoming stories.)
An average homeowner in Allen will pay $190.75 more in city taxes this year. Here's how last year’s average assessed values and tax revenues compare to this year’s:
2023 average assessed value: $457,611
2023 average tax bill: $1,924.25
2024 average assessed value: $506,692
2024 average tax bill: $2,115
State law requires two separate votes on the tax rate. City leaders must vote to adopt the tax rate itself and must approve the increase in the effective tax rate. That’s the part where they state, “effectively a 6.45 percent increase” in the tax rate ordinance they adopt.
Chief Financial Officer Pete Phillis mentioned several times on Tuesday that this is the 32nd consecutive year that Allen would reduce its property tax rate.
“For reference, the city began reducing the tax rate in 1993,” he said. “That tax rate was at an all-time high of $0.766 cents, so you can see that’s a considerable decrease in the tax rate over 32 years.”
“I will say that the state gets very involved, more involved perhaps in this legislative matter than any other legislative matter that we’ll deal with as a council and as a management team,” Phillis said. “The state has mandated that we use specific language, and sometimes that language obfuscates, clouds the intention of council. Obfuscates, it’s a good word.”
There weren’t any speakers at the public hearing regarding the rate adoption. City leaders spent nine minutes congratulating and thanking city staff for their work the budget process.
Recalling his first budget workshops in 2019, Councilmember Chris Schulmeister said, “I know this might be a little hard to believe, but I didn’t say much.”
“Fast forwarding six years to this latest budget, I would like to suggest that it was one of the finest budgets I’ve been involved in since that first one, because we did have honest, frank discussions among all of us,” he said. “I commend staff for bringing forward a proposed budget and tax rate that I really believe is fair.”
Multiple Council members mentioned that Allen has decreased its tax rate since 1993. But the council then adopted an ordinance with language that says “effectively a 6.45 percent increase.”
In a follow-up phone call, I asked Phillis to expound on this obfuscating topic:
“If you have new property tax growth or increases in appraised value, you have to do the math and communicate the increased amount to voters,” Phillis said.
Because technically the city could have reduced the rate even more and operated under the same exact same budget as the previous year? I asked. Yes, he said.
Chelsey Aprill, the city’s Director of Public and Media Relations had this to add via email:
“A few different things can impact the change in average values. Existing homes can increase in value, of course; in addition, new homes appraised above the previous average value can be added to the tax role, resulting in a higher average value. As taxable values on homesteads are subject to a 10 percent annual cap, taxable values on some homes may increase as they ‘catch up’ to the appraisal increases of prior years. And when existing homes are sold, the previous annual cap is removed for the new owners, resulting in higher taxable values for the same property after it changes hands.”
So, for those keeping score at home, the rate the council approved for fiscal year 2025 is technically NOT what the kids call a “no new revenue” tax rate. No new revenue tax rates were a frequent discussion topic on some Allen social media groups in our recent council campaign season leading up to the May general election. A no new revenue tax rate would have been around $0.392.
Since there were at least four mentions about this being the 32nd consecutive year the city of Allen’s tax rate, I was curious about assessed values over the years. Documents on the county’s website don’t go back all the way to 1993, but they do go back two decades. For context, I looked at the Collin County Appraisal District’s Certified Totals and the tax rate history over the past 20 years.
The tax rate history on the County’s website was interesting because of how incrementally the rate has decreased over the years. From 2004 to 2013, the decrease was $0.001 each year. After that, the rate decreased a bit more each year. Also of note, the property count in Allen has almost exactly doubled since 2000, going from 19,212 to 38,409 in 2024. There are more taxpayers, but the city also provides more services and manages more aging infrastructure.
Here’s a chart I put together showing the changes in the tax rate, average homestead values and tax bills since 2004.
For fun (and because I saw it mentioned on an Allen-specific Facebook group) I checked to see the rate Plano adopted this year. Plano’s adopted rate for fiscal year 2025 is $0.4176. Of course, I then had to check McKinney’s recent Council agendas. McKinney set its 2025 rate at $0.415513 per $100.
I did some math, and despite my best efforts protesting my property value with the County Appraisal District this year, my city taxes owed will increase almost $350. This is not my favorite way to be above average. That said, I also like for police officers and firefighters to make a decent living and feel I benefit from public services like roads, sewer systems and libraries. So there’s that.
Allen ISD Bond 2024: Largest of three bond propositions includes campus updates, AHS multipurpose facility
Allen ISD voters will have the chance to thumbs up (or down) a bond package totaling more than $447 million this November. If voters approve the largest of three propositions, all AISD campuses will receive improvements and Allen High School will get a new multipurpose facility, among other projects. Two smaller propositions include funding for track surfaces at two secondary schools and technology devices.
Allen ISD will host an online presentation via Zoom on Thursday, Sept. 19 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Community members will be able to learn about the projects in the bond proposal and will be able to ask questions. Registration is required.
District leaders on Aug. 29 and 30 hosted bond proposal information sessions, and they say they’ll speak to any group of any size as they continue to share information about the bond. The sessions I attended were promoted to local PTA members, among other outreach, and since I’m a member of my kid’s school PTA, I decided I’d head over to the Aug. 30 session at the AISD Service Center.
Since my kid is a student at an Allen ISD elementary school, I was curious what long-term projects were in the works for the 2024 bond season and how those might impact his experience over the next few years.
Here’s what is proposed as noted on AISD’s Bond 2024 webpage:
· Proposition A ($419,062,253): Funds campus improvements, safety and security upgrades and capital improvements, including a multipurpose facility at Allen High School. Anything that qualifies as “general purpose” is allowed to be included in this proposition, per state law.
· Proposition B ($5,359,654): Funds track surfaces at Lowery Freshman Center and Curtis Middle School and resurfacing and re-striping Lowery tennis courts. The tennis courts would be striped for pickleball as well as tennis and would be available for community use. Both Lowery and Curtis stadiums seat more than 1,000 spectators, so they don’t qualify as “general purpose” and must be presented to voters as separate propositions. More on that below.
· Proposition C ($23,077,793): Funds technology devices as part of Allen ISD’s Empower 1:1 program.
District leaders emphasized that all the propositions can be funded using the existing debt service tax rate and that while there are three propositions presented to voters, they want Allen ISD voters to view Bond 2024 as one proposition.
“This is really one bond proposition,” Superintendent Robin Bullock said at the Aug. 30 information session. “Even though you get three opportunities to vote on each one, it is one bond proposition for our community.”
Some politicians and some voters oppose government entities selling bonds or at least seem to want it to be more difficult. A legislative change in 2019 impacted how school districts may present bond propositions to voters.
I hope to break down what’s covered by each proposition in upcoming stories. For now, I’ll note that beginning in 2019, the state requires school districts to use specific language to communicate that bond packages represent tax increases, even if the tax RATE itself is not increasing.
You’ll see the following statement in all caps on the ballot with each of the three propositions you vote on this November, “THIS IS A PROPERTY TAX INCREASE,” though the tax rate remains unchanged. The current tax rate of $1.1258 per $100 of property valuation is the lowest AISD tax rate since 1993. The bond is a tax increase in the sense that the overall tax burden increases, and the debt must be repaid eventually. However, the district projects it can use its current debt-service tax rate to do that.
I asked Chief Financial Officer Brian Carter to help clarify why the state requires the all-caps statement. He didn’t speculate about the state’s motivation, but said the ballot language creates confusion for voters.
“[The statement] ignores the fact that there may be opportunities to shorten the debt or pre-pay the debt,” Carter said, adding that the district has done this multiple times over the years.
“In a school district bond package, the debt is layered out over 25 years, but it’s 25 individual years,” he said. “So we have opportunities to go out there and refinance parts of the debt. We have a lot more flexibility in the debt structure with the school district bond” (than with a mortgage).
City water, sewer, trash rates will increase this fall
The Allen City Council adopted new rates for solid waste, wastewater and water services on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
Allen’s solid waste residential rate will increase by $1, from $18.09 to $19.09 for fiscal year 2025. Among the cities of Allen, McKinney, Frisco, Plano and Richardson, Allen has the lowest rate. Only Allen and McKinney are less than $20 for trash service.
Allen’s water and wastewater service cost will increase by 7.1 percent for an average 10,000-gallon water and 10,000-gallon wastewater user.
Trash increase takes effect Oct. 1, but the water and wastewater increase will take effect Nov. 1 after the weather is cooler and customers aren’t using as much water.
Director of Community Services Steve Massey said the waste services department has been gradually working down a budget reserve. Fiscal year 2024 operations showed a loss of $20,509, and fiscal year 2025 operations shows a projected loss of $33,074 as the department works down its fund reserves to remain within its 90- to 120-days of reserve guidelines.
Massey said 3,800 senior citizens will be receiving a 20 percent senior rate discount, established in 2016 for those over the age of 65.
The City of Allen established a 20 percent discount for senior citizens over age 65 beginning on February 1, 2016 based on requests from residents.
Massey said that the trash service cost savings to all seniors enrolled in the program was $13,727.04 in July 2024. In one year, this was about $164,724 in cost savings for the 3,792 seniors enrolled in the program. Participation has gradually increased, from 2,158 in 2016 to 3,792 in 2024.
Next up, the city adopted rates for water and wastewater services. Massey explained how the North Texas Municipal Water District faces the same increases in costs as in the city for things like electricity, chemicals, construction costs and state required updates.
City water and wastewater services are not supported through property taxes but only through revenues charged to customers for the service itself. Massey said population growth fueling increasing demand for water and wastewater services is the biggest challenge to the North Texas Municipal Water District, along with necessary updates to facilities and technology.
Massey also mentioned that one treatment plant – thankfully not in Allen – has “one of the forever chemicals” in it that’s going to require remediations and removal.
“Luckily that plant does not serve the city of Allen, but I wouldn’t want to be living in Terrell,” Massey said. “That was the hint.”
As an example of that growth, the Bois D’Arc Reservoir, owned and operated by the NTMUD, was intended to serve the region’s dry years water needs through 2050 but is now expected to serve those needs only through 2036, Massey said.
“The problem gets to be (the district) has to develop more (sources) so quick, with construction costs and acquisition costs and right of way and putting new water lines in, it’s very expensive to satiate the needs of the public,” he said. “And of course 40 percent of the water we drink goes right in the toilet bowl, we have to treat it in a wastewater plant…It’s just a never-ending story that’s driven by population growth.”
“Our residents aren’t completely absorbing the wholesale cost that the NTMUD is putting upon the city, which is double digits, 10 percent to 12 percent.,” Council member Chris Schulmeister said. “We’re increasing in the 7 percent range, so we’re not passing all of that rate increase over to the residents. We are managing it, and I think that just shows the discipline that you are practicing in not burdening our Allen residents.”
Massey said that technology and equipment improvements and acquisitions have enabled the city to work more efficiently without additional crews. Asked how smart meters have impacted water services, Massey had this to say:
“The first six months of this, we were in social media hell. The next six months, it got better, and then every time somebody said something negative, 25 people told them how great it was. And it was always, ‘Wow, they found the leak right away and saved me a bunch of money.’”
Massey said irrigation settings are much easier to explain and usage is much easier for consumers to track and the city to examine. He also mentioned an improved payment system is coming and predicted customers will like it much better than the current system.
Nosy Neighbor Briefs
Booze Will Keep Flowing
At its Sept. 10 meeting, the City Council authorized the annual purchase of alcoholic beverages for retail sale at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center and the Courses of Watters Creek. You can continue to imbibe through Allen Americans games and frustrating golf rounds.
CAD Board of Directors Member Appointment
Council members on Sept. 10 also approved nominating Veronica Yost for election to the Board of Directors of the Collin Central Appraisal District. Members of the Board of Directors are charged with things like hiring the Chief Appraiser, approving the CAD’s budget and hiring contractors.
Council member Ken Cook asked if there is any reason elected officials should not be nominated for the Board position. Yost was elected to the Allen ISD Board of Trustees in May. City Attorney Pete Smith explained that the Legislature specifically allows elected officials to serve on the CAD’s Board of Directors and added that the board doesn’t have any authority or control over the appraisal of property. He also noted that it’s prohibited for them to discuss the appraisal value of property with the Chief Appraiser or any other Board members, except in a public meeting.
Boards and Commission Appointments
On Sept. 10, council members appointed candidates for expiring terms to city boards and commissions. The nominating committee consisted of Council Members Chris Schulmeister, Tommy Baril and Michael Schaeffer. They interviewed 56 people for appointments to 39 positions. 31 new individuals were interviewed, and 14 new individuals were appointed to boards and commissions.
Keep Allen Beautiful Board
Mayor Bain Brooks appointed Council Member Ben Trahan to serve as a Council Liaison to the Keep Allen Beautiful Board.
North Texas Food Bank Peanut Butter Drive
The city of Allen is partnering with the North Texas Food Bank to collect peanut butter for hungry children in North Texas. Drop off jars of peanut butter at city hall through Sept. 30, or donate online at cityofallen.org/pbdrive.