SIX SPEAK TO CITY COUNCIL ABOUT TAX RATE INCREASE

  
Hannah DeBolt Smith

 

Six people spoke during the public hearing on the proposed tax increase by the City of Brenham.  Five of the six strongly opposed the proposed $0.517 tax rate which is one cent higher than last year.  Property appraisals within the city went up this year by an average of 6 percent.  With the 1 cent increase in the rate, the average homeowner in the city will pay 7 percent more in property taxes this year.

Hannah De Bolt Smith, who is battling breast cancer, made a tearful plea to the council not to tax her and her husband Charlie out of Brenham.

 

Suzzette Moser said that the tax increase would be a burden for retired residents on a fixed income.  Sally Clinton said that taxpayers are always having to cut back on their expenses, so the city should also, instead of asking for more money.  Local Relator George Dillingham told council that the 7 percent tax increase was not sustainable.

 

Alicia Carvel stated that most incomes in the city could not support the tax increase.  Scott Schaefer from Fayette County explained that municipal budgets are very complex and that the issue need a lot of study, but that he hoped that drainage projects were priority to avoid the flooding that Houston and La Grange received.

The proposed tax increase will now go before council in two votes.  The first reading and vote will occur on Monday, September 18th at 8:30 AM.  The second is scheduled for the regular City Council meeting on Thursday, September 21st at 1:00 PM.  Brenham City Council meets on the second floor of City Hall.

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15 Comments

  1. the city keeps raising taxes but the local businesses don’t give their employees cost of living raises and the low wages that Brenham businesses do pay is just shameful.I lived in brenham all my life and the only thing I dislike about it is how all the businesses stick together to keep the wages low a person has to work out of town just to afford to live here.

    1. I have lived here to; I am fifth generation. The other facet to the increasing property tax saga is the increasing local government and administration management staff. Sad thing is. When I went to city hall on Friday afternoons, since that is the only day I can leave work early, everybody is gone at city hall. I have had a question on a property that I wanted to buy. I could never find the city planner on a Friday. Now it is too late. Someone else bought the property. I guess it is better now since the property taxes went up again.

  2. Citizens needs to read the entire 2017-2018 budget, which can be found on line at city of Brenham.org. This read will surprise some, and anger many. In a time when many working citizens face increases in group insurance premiums, deductibles, copay, and elimination of spouse coverage, elimination of company pensions, or zero benefits, the city will continue to give retirees a $100 per month stipend to offset increased premiums, or $200 for spouse and retiree. In Community services funding, there is $8500.00 for the Heritage museum,((closed indefinitely) and $1,000 for Mission Brenham( operations suspended). Thankfully, the city is filling funding requests for 6 other worthy charities and non profits, total $145,200. Interesting to note the city is devoting $255,000 of the projected Hotel and Occupancy tax revenues for the promotion of tourism, with 36% ( $92,000) devoted to The Barnhill Center. The remainder is divided out over city parks, plus downtown annual events. And a whopping $80,000 set aside for meeting, event planning, and mid-week Conference marketing. Included also, is $9, 349.00 for “contingency”. And if that isn’t enough there are “workshops” planned to raise our utility rates incrementally over the next 5 years. This is just a sampling of this ” budget” read. Being a responsible citizen is not easy, that includes being a responsible and avid voter.

  3. We on council appreciate everyone’s comments and concerns. They do not fall on deaf ears. We hear you and are working hard to operate the city efficiently. We try to always be responsible for taxpayer dollars. It is difficult to compare our city to others like College Station. There is no comparison on the amount of appraised values found there as are found here. Trust me, they are feeling the crunch also. College Station has just proposed a 2.5 cent per $100 valuation tax hike to cover their higher expenses. The City of Brenham is proposing a 1.0 cent tax hike. This proposed tax rate of .5170 is still 4.62 cents lower than our tax rate of 2014 and is only 1.07 cents higher than the tax rate of 10 years ago. Half of the penny hike is to cover higher operating expenses. 17% of our budget is personnel. Health insurance alone is going up 8% for all of these employees and family. It will also cover our needs for part-time employees at the library and animal shelter. The other half penny is a one-time hike needed to fix long-needed drainage problems around town as well as starting over 40 infrastructure repair projects which were damaged in last year’s floods. The cost of these 40+ projects which have been identified by FEMA will be reimbursed up to 75%, but the city has to front the money 100% up front to complete the projects. We continue an aggressive rehabilitation program on our 40 year old+ streets. As can be witnessed by the recent sink hole which opened on Burleson St (just north of MLK) and the Barbee street creek crossing, extreme weather events can shuffle our priority list significantly.
    Please keep the comments coming! Keep informed! Ask questions of any of us.

    1. Thanks for the Pyle comments. I have one question: Since there evidently is not a reserve fund for city of Brenham emergencies, such as storm damage, and our taxes are going up to pay for these damages, and FEMA is reimbursing the city 75% in the near future, will 75% of that portion of our taxes we pay to cover these costs be reimbursed to the taxpayers once FEMA reimburses the city?

    2. To quote your own words….” 17% of our budget is personnel” Sounds to me like the WAY over paid city manager and his assistants needs to go… That would save THOUSANDS…

  4. My father had to sell his house and rent because he couldn’t afford the extra $300 a month on taxes for a 1800 square foot house!!! YOU TELL ME WHAT’S THAT’S RIGHT.

    1. citizen Z,
      I would be happy to check into that. If you would give the address of the house, I will get back to you ASAP.
      Charlie

  5. I am proud of those who spoke up. I was not able to attend because I work out of town. And the city continues to hold these meeting at 1:30. I agree with Gloria Witte it does not matter what the people say their mind is made up. I agree with C W C as long as we keep electing the people nothing will change.

  6. Brenham could really take a lesson on how to run a tight city budget from the town of College Station, As a former C S resident I can tell you they ran a tight ship. One thing Brenham could do to cut cost is to have garbage pickup once a week instead of twice. There really is not a need to have my trash picked up on Tuesday and Friday when one day a week would help cut cost and save fuel. But as long as we continue to elect these same people to run our city , we will continue to get the same Tax and spend practice.

  7. Thank you All who took time to attend and those who spoke their mind. It is a blessing to live in a free society and an area where we are not afraid to speak our mind. Thank you to the Mayor and Council members for listening. I’m especially proud of Hannah Smith for getting out during her cancer treatment to express her love for Brenham and the people who choose to build their lives here. ?

  8. When will people understand the city council does as they please. A over paid city manager that has how many assistants for what??!?? They city replaced our road back in May and had to come full in the cracks this week with tar…… What a waste of money and resources….

    1. While it is clear that you would prefer to keep grinding the axe over Terry Roberts, for the KWHI readers’ sakes could you at least do a little research before you pick a new attack vector? You have the entire library of human knowledge at your fingertips, as evidenced by the fact that you submit comments electronically to a digital webpage, and yet nearly every comment you make reveals not only your personal biases, but also your deep ignorance of nearly every topic you use to attack city management. Tarring the cracks in asphalt and pavement is a perfectly standard, perfectly common-sense and engineer-approved method of maintaining such roads. ALL pavement or asphalt roads will crack unless an exorbitant amount of money is spent trying to stabilize the soil underneath, and tarring the cracks is a very low-cost and efficient method of preventing water infiltration that contributes heavily to rapid deterioration. But I suppose next you’ll insist you know better than several generations of civil engineers, or blame the city for not using better (more expensive) road-maintenance/building techniques, while complaining about increased taxes out of the other side of your mouth. I don’t work for the city, and I’m not an engineer, but I do drive frequently and extensively in small-town Texas, and I can assure you that Brenham’s streets are among the best, if not THE best. Please, give it a rest, or at least just stick to the one line of attack — you don’t like Terry Roberts. Okay, we get it already.

  9. Thank you to the six people that were able to go to the meeting. Some of us had to work in order to afford the tax increase and try to barely make it with the cost of everything going up. Brenham needs to have a budget and stick strictly to it. Why increase our taxes, when you can cut your expenses.

    1. I don’t think it would’ve made any difference if a thousand people were there. They’ve made their decisions, just going through the formalities. I’m very disappointed that no one thinks about the Senior Citizens and the people who are paying out of the wazoo for health insurance when making decisions.

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