In a letter to Mayor Shane McFarland and members of the City Council, Murfreesboro City Manager Rob Lyons calculated a theoretical monthly "bill" at $42.63 for a median home value of $169,600 in FY 2017.

In outlining the many quality services Murfreesboro citizens receive for "monthly" costs relative to the property tax, Lyons expressed to the Council August 15, "Putting the annual budget in terms of a "monthly bill" provides a good comparison since we pay most of our bills on a monthly basis. I think it also provides a good example of how city government provides many services for a very reasonable costs."

City services include

• A full-service police department.
• A fire and rescue department with a Class 2 ISO rating, which saves residents on their homeowners insurance.
• Parks and Recreation facilities that include Sports*Com, StarPlex, Barfield Crescent Park, Adams Tennis Complex, Old Fort Park, Patterson Park Community Center, Richard Siegel Soccer Park, and the Greenway.
• A nationally-recognized K-6 Murfreesboro City Schools (MCS) system.
• Weekly Solid Waste garbage removal, as well as brush, limb and grass clipping removal.
• Street Department maintenance, including mowing right-of-way, snow removal, street paving, leaf collection and street lighting.
• Transportation Department Rover public transit system.
• Building & Codes Department inspection services, including ordinance enforcement.
• Support of a variety of economic development and social services, including the Rutherford Chamber of Commerce, Senior Center, etc.
• Payment on bonds used for road construction, schools, police and fire services, garbage collection, recreational facilities and drainage improvements.
• Funding for support services: Administration, Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal, Planning, Fleet, Engineering and Urban Environmental Departments and other support services.

In the letter to Council, Lyons also provided a detailed breakdown of how tax dollars are spent. The FY 17 budget is available at http://www.murfreesborotn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1483.

"We continue to be one of the fastest growing cities in the country and receive national recognitions about our quality of life," Lyons added in the letter. "The City's bond rating was upgraded this summer to the second best rating possible, which results in lower interest rates on bonds."

Lyons methodology calculated each of the City's department's as a percent of the total budget and applying the percentage to the tax bill on a $169,600 house. Some tax bills would be lower and some higher depending on property tax and assessed value. For example, Lyons wrote to Council, "The Police budget ($27,854,154) is 18.8 percent of all general fund expenditures. In the example, 18.8 percent of the monthly bill of $42.63 equals $4.72."