Hello Friends!
I don't normally do recaps of meetings, but last night's meeting was so important, I felt that you should know what happened. First of all, if you haven't had a chance to watch the meeting, I strongly encourage you to at least watch the comments by Council at the end. Here is a link to the video: https://waxahachietx.new.swagit.com/videos/136436 It is hard for me to imagine people speaking FOR MORE TAXES, but that's exactly what is happening. There are some who spoke against as well, but one council member considered them the "squeaky wheels". If you want lower taxes, you must be willing to get involved in some way.
There has been a lot said about how long the budget process goes on for. Council isn't involved in it from the beginning. While there were a couple of opportunities to bring up lowering the tax rate, I did contact the City Manager back at the beginning of July and discussed my problem with the tax rate. He knows, as do all the Council, that leaving our tax rate at 0.66 - the same as last year, was still going to increase the tax burden on our residents due to the rise in appraisals. While the city doesn't set appraisal values, the city is given the numbers to know how much tax revenue is anticipated for the next year BEFORE setting the tax rate so that they have the ability to raise/lower the rate as needed.
The votes were as follows: #19 - Approving the FY22 budget: 4-1, me voting in opposition; #21 - Ratifying the property tax revenue increase: 4-1, me voting in opposition; #22 - Setting the tax rate for FY 22 at 0.66: 4-1, me voting in opposition. I have received cold shoulders, rude comments and harassment for voting for the taxpayers. Voting against the rest of Council is never an easy thing to do. I don't enjoy it at all, but I have to do what I can and what is right. I have heard from my constituents who say they don't want their taxes raised. I voted for you.
There has to come a point when people are willing to put a stop to the tax increases, but it takes more than one vote to do so. Yes, the city is growing but the city could still adopt the no-new-revenue rate and grow the budget with all the new properties added to the tax rolls. I requested the next budget presented to Council be based on the no-new-revenue rate. I don't know if there is any other Council support for this as nobody addressed that comment last night. Our budget is growing MORE than the city is growing. The FY 2013 General Fund Budget was $27,168,025. The budget for FY 2022 that was approved last night was for $52,737,125. While sales tax has increased, the city's budget is primarily paid for by property taxes. This is why your property tax bill has steadily increased. Even though the rate was kept at 0.68 for all that time except for last year, property values have steadily increased and Council has not lowered the rate. Many infrastructure items are not paid through the General Fund - they are paid with debt, which is also backed by property taxes. Unlike WISD who has elections to take on debt, the city has chosen to do general obligation bonds, which don't require elections. I would like to see the city do certificates of obligation to allow the voters to weigh in on what you think is important to the city.
Being a council member is hard. The decisions we have to make are hard and last night was difficult. I know in my heart that I made the right decision for the citizens and the city. The best advice I can give to any resident is to be involved by coming to meetings and/or contacting your council members and to hold your elected officials (myself included) accountable for their votes.
Your Friendly Councilmember,
Melissa Olson
(text) 817-507-5162
molson@waxahachie.com
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