BRENHAM HOLDS PUBLIC HEARING ON BUDGET AND TAX RATE (ALMOST)

  

Update:  The City of Brenham sent a classified ad to the Newspaper with the incorrect time for the meeting. The Newspaper was not at fault.  The City says the new time of the public hearing will be Monday, September 26th at 8:30 AM, and Thursday, September 29th at 1:00 PM.

No one spoke at the Public Hearing on the proposed budget and tax rate for the City of Brenham Monday morning.  City Council then unanimously passed on the first reading of the 22-23 budget and the new property tax rate.  The new tax rate is .4737 per $100 valuation, which is 2 cents lower than last year’s rate, but will bring on more money to the city because of the 27 percent growth in property tax values.

City Council member Atwood Kenjura said that it was a perfect storm of increase of property values and the expiring of credits for the city not raising the tax rate higher the last few years.  Brenham’s Strategic Budget Officer Tim Mc Roberts agreed:

The reason the city will be taking in over 19 percent in new tax revenue, when the state says 3.5 percent is the maximum a city can increase without going to the voters for approval, is that Brenham says they have found some loopholes in the law.  Part of the loophole has to do with the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) which city council passed in December of 2018.  Tax revenue increases for that zone are not part of the calculation of the city’s revenue, and are used only in that zone.   Also, the calculation only uses the increase in value of current properties, not new developments.