{"id":339972,"date":"2026-06-17T16:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T16:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/339972\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T16:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T16:09:12","slug":"lakeway-projected-to-have-1-6-million-shortfall-for-upcoming-fiscal-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/339972\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeway projected to have $1.6 million shortfall for upcoming fiscal year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLakeway is projected to have a <a href=\"https:\/\/lakewaytx.new.swagit.com\/videos\/391094?ts=0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$1.6 million shortfall<\/a> for the upcoming fiscal year as revenues are down by 5.5%, equalling $19.5 million, while expenditures have increased by nearly 6% at $21.1 million, Lakeway City Manager Joseph Molis said at a <a href=\"https:\/\/lakeway-tx.civicweb.net\/Portal\/MeetingInformation.aspx?Org=Cal&amp;Id=2302\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">June 15<\/a> City Council meeting.<\/p>\n<p>The overview<\/p>\n<p>The city has historically built its budget around <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/austin\/lake-travis-westlake\/government\/2026\/06\/16\/lakeway-looks-to-recruit-businesses-with-economic-incentive-policy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">development growth<\/a>, as the ongoing decline in high value developments is a major contributor to the decrease in revenues, Molis said.<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, $2.9 million from development contributed to 20% of Lakeway\u2019s operating revenue, yet today that number is at $750,000, or 6% of operating revenue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were in a period of high growth and now we need to adjust for that,\u201d Molis said.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the decrease in revenues, the city is currently $200,000 ahead in sales tax revenue compared to this time last year, Molis said.<\/p>\n<p>The city also has 58% of its fund reserves available from the general fund balance and the capital fund balance.<\/p>\n<p>Molis said the city is \u201cwell within the comfort zone\u201d of maintaining 40%-50% in reserve in order to address emergencies like natural disasters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re still fiscally very strong,\u201d Molis said. \u201cWe have had really great years of sales tax and property tax revenues, and our general fund balance has always been healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The details<\/p>\n<p>Three strategic options were presented to the council to improve the balance.<\/p>\n<p>The city can increase revenue by adjusting tax rates, fees and pursuing new revenue sources.<\/p>\n<p>Improving tax base productivity may also decrease the shortfall by supporting development or redevelopment that expands the tax base and generates long term revenues.<\/p>\n<p>Service levels may also be adjusted as service delivery models, staffing levels and program offerings are evaluated to reduce recurring expenditures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t do all three things simultaneously &#8230; we have to balance how we prioritize community values,\u201d Molis said.<\/p>\n<p>Lakeway will also begin charging &#8220;convenience fees\u201d for credit cards to minimize expenditures as the city previously absorbed approximately $54,000 in credit card fees, Molis said.<\/p>\n<p>Something to note<\/p>\n<p>The city will have a more comprehensive view of the budget once property tax revenues are available.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lakeway is projected to have a $1.6 million shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year as revenues are down&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,2050,1604,21010,43748,110,10708,52573,251],"class_list":["post-339972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-budget","tag-community-impact","tag-decrease","tag-deficit","tag-development","tag-lakeway","tag-lakeway-city-council","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}