FY24 Budget Maintains Tax Rate and Services
The Mayor and Council in May adopted a $157.2 million city budget that maintains services and focuses on fiscal sustainability, capital investments and ongoing city plans, such as the Comprehensive Plan, Climate Action Plan, and the Vision Zero Action Plan to eliminate traffic- and pedestrian-related deaths and serious injuries.
The adopted budget for Fiscal Year 2024, which begins July 1, is an increase of 5.6% over the Fiscal Year 2023 adopted budget. It keeps the city’s real property tax rate at $0.292 per $100 of assessed valuation. All residential and commercial property owners pay this tax. Rockville has not increased the property tax rate since 1995. The Mayor and Council sought to avert a potential property tax rate increase in Fiscal Year 2025 through budget capacity plans that help promote a flat property tax rate that would be sustainable through Fiscal Year 2027.
The water usage charge per 1,000 gallons, assuming average use of 14,000 gallons per quarter, will be $7.44, up from $7.30 in FY 2023. The sewer usage charge per 1,000 gallons will be $10.90, up from $10.74. The budget also includes an increase of $24 per year for recycling and trash collection and an $8 increase in the annual stormwater management fee, to $146 for a single-family residence or customer of equivalent size. A study planned for FY 2024 will inform water and sewer rates for FY 2025-2027.
Additions to priority areas in the FY24 operating budget include funding to reinstate the city’s community survey and to add two councilmembers after the 2023 election, support for police recruitment, expanded recreation programming and camps, a new stormwater incentive program, facility energy assessments, and compliance monitoring for short-term rentals. The capital budget funds projects addressing environmental sustainability, community safety, data security, emergency management and city facilities.
The Mayor and Council appropriated the final $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to advance the RedGate Park Master Plan. Taxpayer-supported bonds will support outdoor recreation pool renovations at the Rockville Swim and Fitness Center, Americans with Disabilities Act-related improvements to the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, and Lincoln Park Community Center improvements planned to begin in FY24.
For more information, visit www.rockvillemd.gov/budget, where the adopted budget will be posted in July.