CITY COUNCIL APPROVES 2 PERCENT EMPLOYEE PAY SCALE ADJUSTMENT
The Brenham City Council met today (Thursday), and approved a 2%, mid- year Employee Pay Scale adjustment.
Carolyn Miller, the City of Brenham Chief Financial Officer told the City Council that the funding was available for the raises, after telling them earlier in the year that the ability to give raises was contingent on many things, one of them being sales tax numbers.
Miller reported that even though the City fell behind in collections in the first six months of FY 2014, collections had rebounded in the last half of that year, ending the year at 99.7% of prior year actual.
Another factor was the growth in property valuation. The City’s certified taxable property valuations have grown from $1.08 billion last year, to this year’s total of $1.10 billion for the 2015 tax year, an increase of 2%.
There was also an increase in residential building permit. In 2014, 79 permits were issues totaling $8.4 million, up by 43, compared to the last fiscal year. Miller reports that this increase is directly related to the high demand for housing in the Ralston Creek and Highland Meadows Subdivision.
Lastly, it was pointed out that the low rate of unemployment for Washington County was another factor, with the September 2014 jobless rate of 4.0%, which was much lower than the 4.9 percent of September of 2013.
The council members also approved the authorization of a Tax Phase-In agreement between the City of Brenham and Valmont Coatings, Inc. Clint Kolby noted that Valmont Coating will be investing $18.5 million dollars in a capital project to construct the facility and make site improvement. Valmont will create 80 new jobs during the first year of operation, which will add $4.3 million in payroll to the local economy, and plans to increase the number of employees to 120 after 5 years.
Valmont Coating will pay a total of $17,917 in new taxes its first year, and $8,694 in city taxes. The company will receive an abatement of $161,259 in year one and $78, 248 City Taxes. At the end of the tax phase-in period, Valmont will have paid a total of $1,994,453 in new taxes, and $147,800 in city taxes, and will have received a total abatement of $1,128,814 and $547,736 from city taxes. None of the abatement the company will receive include taxes for Blinn College or Brenham ISD.
The council members also were also presented with the First Quarter Report by the Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau by Lu Hollander of the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The number of walk-in visitors for December was 476, up Decembers 2013 347. November 2014 had 295 walk-in visitors, down from 470 from November 2013, and October 2014 had 750 walk-in visitors, up from 570 walk-in visitors from October 2013.
Hollander also noted that visitors to the BrenhamTexas.com web page was down in December, November and October of 2014. There were no Google advertising during December, but people were staying on the page longer.
The City Council also noted that more bids will be taken next week for Library Project, and the work with finding a bidder for the animal shelter will also continue next week. They also reminded the public that the 2015 Annual Spring Collection Days is continuing through the 21st for City Of Brenham residents, and March 26-28th for County residents.