BRENHAM CITY COUNCIL TO HOLD PUBLIC HEARING ON BUDGET & TAX RATE, CONSIDER INCREASING GAS RATES

  

A public hearing on the City of Brenham’s proposed budget and tax rate, as well as consideration of an increase to city gas rates, will take place at the Brenham City Council’s meeting Monday.

The proposed budget is projected to raise more revenue from total property taxes than last year’s budget by $1,510,287, an increase of 19.2 percent.  The property tax revenue coming from new property added to the tax roll this year is $293,274.

The tax rate presented to the council is $0.4737 per $100 valuation, less than the current rate of $0.4940.  However, it is above the no-new-revenue rate of $0.3966 and just under the voter approval rate of $0.4738.

After the council takes public comment, it will vote to adopt the budget and levy the new tax rate.

Councilmembers will also look at changing the tap fee pricing for natural gas.  That includes adjusting the tap fee rates for services 1-inch through 4-inches; adding a per foot charge for gas service over 100 feet and for gas main extensions; adding a meter connection fee for installing a meter on a service with an existing meter loop; adding a meter upsizing fee; and instituting a fee for turning gas service on/off at customer request.  The city says the increases are due to the rising cost of supplies and materials.

The council will then hold an executive session to discuss utility competitive matters regarding the city’s gas utility system and consult with the city attorney concerning Aviators Plus, LLC v. City of Brenham; Cause No. 27896; 21st Judicial District Court, Washington County.

The council will meet Monday at 8:30 a.m. at Brenham City Hall.

Click here to read the agenda packet for Monday's meeting.

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8 Comments

  1. Another rate increase for utilities.. this time gas. CITY COUNCIL… how are customers who are on a budget going to pay for increased costs that are not in THEIR budget. There is a recession, no salary increases, increased cost of commodities to just survive on…PLEASE LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WHO ELECTED YOU.
    No more increases! Don’t get me going on the school issue….

  2. I understand That the cost of almost everything has gone up, Therefore prices are higher , But my questions is Why isn’t the city making Cuts where they can? That’s what we as citizens have to do. You see our water , Electric, Gas, Food cost have all increased But we have to sit down and make a budget then we have to decide where we can cut some of our spending. We can’t simple increase our budget, that is exactly what the city needs to do. There are people in this town that are Barly getting by, Yes I know you don’t care about them because they do not spend money at the Barnhill center or donate money for parks. But your decisions are adding a extra burden to these folks who are to poor to stay but to poor to move away. Please consider making a few hard choices and cut spending where you can .Because of all the city’s price increases I will NOW be voting NO on the new school…

  3. See below!! Where is CH Harvey when you need him!

    Don’t tell me you want to issue CO bonds(which don’t require citizens vote) because “time is of the essence” let the citizens vote if they want their taxes increased to support another fire station. Wake up and see that people don’t have unlimited resources.

    New Debt Highlights
    The FY 22‐23 Proposed Budget includes $10 million in new debt issuance, for the design and construction of Fire Station #2, as well as much needed street projects. As discussed at the Council Retreat in May, we are recommending certificates of obligation (COs) rather than a bond election due to the level of urgency of some projects.

  4. Read below…. The City employees are increasing their own retirement plans. Employees will put in 7% and get matched double. 21% total guaranteed!

    Why would they go higher when all other private businesses are doing the exact opposite?

    TMRS True‐Up – The TMRS retirement plan is the most important benefit in attracting and retaining key employees. An objective in the Drive to 2025 strategy was to improve the competitiveness of Brenham’s TMRS plan by moving from a 5 percent 2/1 to a 7 percent 2/1 employee/employer match. Last year we took action to achieve this goal. The first step towards accomplishing this objective was to recognize and contribute to the unfunded pension plan liability caused by annual Ad Hoc Cost‐of‐Living (COLA) adoption for retirees and switch to an automatic repeating COLA plan feature. This plan change increased the City’s TMRS contribution on January 1, 2022 from 10.38 percent to 16.69 percent of payroll but allows for a reduction (pay‐ down) of unfunded pension balance of approximately $13 million. Due to the rate change taking place in January, the new FY 22‐23 budget will absorb 3 months of the 6.31% change to get to 16.69%, and then 9 months of a 0.42% increase to get to the new 2023 rate of 17.11%.

    1. City managers and city accounting promised 7% increase to employees over five years ago. City managers and accounting lied. Responsible and honest government would have inacted an upgrade program when originally promised over five years ago. Did management and accounting reallocate these original funds for their own personal increase in pay? Was this their own conscious blatant lies?
      Looks like intentional deceit and upper management greed.

  5. Why is this even a surprise. Water, sanitation now gas. Oh and a new Jr High. We are in a recession. We are just trying to pay our taxes. Shame on all of you.

  6. Well here we go again. We raise more money but now they want to raise the gas tax rate. When will city council start thinking about where we the public willl get the money to pay the tax rate. So many of us are on a fixed income. Does anybody on city council have a heart to get something done for us. It is a bad situation council has gotten us into.

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