ACFR City of Paris 9-30-2024 with Continuing Disclosure Tables-searchable

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elected by the Council itself to serve as moderator of the group. The Council members can serve a maximum of three consecutive 2 -year staggered terms. The Mayor and Council appoint the City Manager, the City Attorney, and the Municipal Judge. The City is a Home Rule City with all powers granted to home rule cities by the constitution and laws of the State of Texas. The Council enacts legislation, adopts budgets, and determines policies of the City of Paris. The City Manager executes the laws and administers the government of the City. Economic Condition and Outlook Taxable values, as originally certified by the Lamar County Appraisal District, for fiscal year 2024-25 reflect an 8.21% increase over the 2023-24 values. Building permits for new residential and commercial construction were valued at $11,737,260 for fiscal year 2023-24. This activity will be reflected in next year's taxable values. Sales taxes for 2023-24 increased from the prior year by 3.16%. Sales taxes for 2024-25 on a cash basis were 2.33% above the 2023-24 level as of March 31, 2025. Hotel occupancy taxes were up 13.01% compared to 2022-23. Franchise fees for 2023-24 were down 0.57% compared to the previous year. This is an immaterial amount. The City of Paris, Paris Economic Development Corporation, and the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce have been actively recruiting new business to the area as well as supporting already existing businesses. PEDC has several active incentive commitments in regard to its recruitment of new industry and support of existing industry. There are currently incentives totaling $2,064,320 involving Lions Head, Universal Fabricating, Rodgers Wade, and Ametsa. General Fund receipts equaled 124.19% of the budget. General Fund expenditures were 110.57% of the budget. For the 202425 fiscal year, the City Council adopted a tax rate of .46120 cents per $100 of value. This rate is $0.01662 cents lower than the previous year but does allow maintaining all services at their current levels and funds all required interest and sinking funds. Taxable property value increased 8.21%. Long-term Financial Planning and Relevant Financial Policies The City continues to exercise its long-range financial plan. The City formalized a key financial policy in 2010 that had been informally followed previously: a utility rate maintenance policy. The utility rate maintenance policy will help assure the financial integrity of the enterprise fund along with its related interest and sinking funds. Another policy was formalized in 2013 in the form of a reserve level guideline for both the general fund and utility fund. Adequate reserve levels provide the City with the ability to deal with extraordinary events and maintain its credit worthiness. This credit worthiness, as reflected in the current financial statements, allowed the City to obtain very favorable interest rates on debt issued from 2016 through 2025. Major Initiatives The City continues to work on its long-range plan to maintain its infrastructure. The City called for a general obligation bond election in May 2013 in the amount of $45,000,000 which passed overwhelmingly. Proceeds from these bonds were used for water and sewer infrastructure improvements. At the same time a small low interest $2,900,000 Certificates of Obligation issue was made through the Texas Water Development Board. Both bonds will be paid for out of utility system revenues. With the payoff of earlier debt issues, it was not necessary to raise utility rates to fund this new debt. Likewise, a $9,750,000 bond election for street construction and repair was approved in 2017 and those projects have been completed. In May of 2021, the City issued $43,855,000 in Combination Tax and Surplus Revenue Certificates of Obligation to fund Phase One construction I-3