Karen Gleason
City council members have voted to slightly lower the city’s property tax rate for the coming year.
The council members took a record vote on the proposed city property tax rate during their Aug. 24 regular meeting, following a short presentation by City Finance Director Alberta S. Barrett.
“This is an annual process where we can discuss the proposed tax rate, which we have proposed at .7070 per $100 (property) valuation, which is a reduction from our current rate of .7209 per $100 valuation. So that is our proposed rate, and we need to take a record vote on that, and we need to schedule our public hearings,” Barrett told the council.
She noted the city charter requires two public hearings on the city’s proposed annual budget and said those hearings have been scheduled for Sept. 14 and Sept. 21.
“And then we would adopt the budget on Sept. 28,” Barrett said.
“The tax rate is only required to have one public hearing, so . . . it will be on Sept. 21, and then we’re required to adopt the rate seven days later; no more than seven days, so that would be Sept. 28,” she added.
Barrett said the .7070 proposed property tax rate will generate $5,398,675 for the city’s maintenance and operation for the general fund, and $5,215,287 to the interest and sinking debt service fund.
The finance director asked council members to let her know if there were any other changes they would like to see in the proposed budget so those changes could be made and discussed during the upcoming meetings before the budget is adopted.
She then said the council would have to take a “record vote” on the tax rate, with each council member polled individually for his or her vote.
Mayor Bruno “Ralphy” Lozano said before the council voted, he wanted to hear if any of the council members had further input on the proposed budget or tax rate.
Mayor Pro-tem Alfredo “Fred” Carranza Jr. asked about the city auditor position, a question he also had raised during previous meetings and was told that issu could be dealt with later. None of the other council members had comments.
Lozano then made the motion to set the proposed tax rate for Fiscal Year 2021-2022 at 0.7070 and to schedule the two public hearings on Sept. 14 and Sept. 21. Councilman Steven Webb gave the second.
Each of the council members then were polled individually, and each voted in favor of the motion.
