BRENHAM CITY COUNCIL PROPOSES NO CHANGE TO TAX RATE
The Brenham City Council formally proposed an unchanged tax rate from last year at its meeting today (Thursday).
The council took a unanimous record vote to leave the tax rate at $0.4940 per $100 valuation for the new fiscal year. The rate consists of $0.3500 for maintenance and operations and $0.1440 for interest and sinking.
Strategic Budget Officer Tim McRoberts said while there may not be a change to the rate, higher property values mean the average homeowner in the city will pay 12 percent more in property taxes.
The average homestead taxable value in the city increased from $192,510 in 2021 to $215,591 this year.
McRoberts said there are 1,380 “Over 65” homesteads who have their taxes frozen, with an appraised value of $263,261,973. There are 40 accounts frozen for disabled persons, totaling $5,136,618 in appraised value.
The proposed tax rate is higher than the no-new-revenue rate of $0.3966, but lower than the voter-approval rate of $0.5416.
The rate is scheduled for adoption at the council’s meetings on September 1st and September 15th.
In other items, the council:
- Held an executive session to discuss retaining litigation counsel in relation to Aviators Plus, LLC v. City of Brenham; Cause No. 37896; 21st Judicial District Court; Washington County. Aviators Plus serves as the Brenham Municipal Airport’s Fixed Base Operator (FBO).
- Approved an expansion to the city’s interlocal agreement with Brenham ISD to provide for a fifth school resource officer.
- Approved a resolution selecting Strand Associates to complete project implementation for the American Rescue Plan Act funding by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, or other federal or state agency.
- Approved an ordinance to amend a division of city ordinance related to industrial wastewater discharge standards and pretreatment. After a review of the ordinance, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality requested the ordinance be amended to delete the phrase “and is incorporated into the city’s TPDES (Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit.”
- Granted a specific use permit to allow a day care use at 1200 South Austin Street.
- Granted a city-led request to change the zoning around Brenham ISD’s Pride Academy on South Market Street, as well as the Brenham ISD bus barn and the former site of Brenham Bible Church on East Sixth Street, from R-1 single-family use and/or R-2 mixed residential use to B-1 mixed residential and local business use.
Click here to view the agenda packet for today's meeting.
The taxable value of an owner’s primary residence can’t rise more than 10% in a given year if they have a homestead exemption.
School districts’ tax rates were capped and required cities and counties to seek voter approval if they want to raise their total property tax revenue by 3.5% or more than the previous year.
At a minimum, the numbers in this article do not appear to support the 10% rule of our property tax code.
Rather than nebulas tax rates, it would be nice to know the exact numbers in valuations from year to year and the revenue per tax district for homestead, residential and commercial property. That would be transparency.
I read on the KWHI news about a month ago that the city is going to raise the water by 5.5% for 2022. That is their city tax increase but not as much as a city tax increase would be.
So the city takes in 12% more because of property value increases. Sure wish I could increase my income that easily.
It sounds like they could have lowered it, with all of the increasing values.
Or, is this supposed to make us happy when it goes up next year???