City staff identify calculation errors, add $843,437 to no‑new‑revenue estimate

City staff told the Amarillo City Council on Sept. 14 that earlier tax-rate work included two material errors that overstated debt and depressed the no‑new‑revenue (NNR) calculation.

Finance presenter Andrew said the corrections included removing a roughly $1,000,000 fleet debt payment that should have been funded by enterprise fees, and restoring $291,000,000 in TIF-captured value that had previously been deducted from the tax base while still showing as a payable item. After re-running the Truth-in-Taxation calculations with certified county inputs, staff said the NNR moved to 0.42170 and that the recalculation produced $843,437 in additional available revenue compared with the prior presentation. "We added back in the TIF captured value of the $291,000,000 that we subtracted up above," Andrew said, explaining how the taxable value rose to nearly $17 billion.

Potter and Randall County officials told the council the mistake came from differing internal reports and timing in county software; they plan to use a certification form going forward to avoid similar mismatches. Christina McMurray, Randall County Tax Assessor-Collector, said counties retain backup paperwork for certified values and the state Truth-in-Taxation form is used for the calculation. "For the record, my name is Christina McMurray. I'm the tax assessor collector for Randall County," she said.

Council members asked staff to provide the questionnaire and supporting schedules so the city can audit where the incorrect numbers entered the process and to bring reconciled transfer and reserve schedules back at the Sept. 22 meeting.