HARLINGEN — The city’s property tax rate will stand as it has for about seven years.
In a public hearing yesterday, no residents spoke out about city commissioner’s proposal to keep the city’s tax rate at 58 cents per $100 of property valuation.
Next year, new construction is projected to help the tax rate generate an additional $418,000 in revenue, City Manager Dan Serna said after the hearing.
The city’s tax rate has stood at 58 cents since 2010, when it was lowered from 59 cents.
Last month, Serna proposed a $43.5 million general fund budget.
Now, the city is waiting for the local police and fire unions to present their requests including salary increases.
Serna said the city plans to work within the proposed budget to fund any union requests.
Last year at this time, commissioners mulled the possibility of raising the tax rate as they discussed setting aside more money to fund street projects.
Commissioners discussed raising the tax rate by as much as 4 cents to generate an additional $1.3 million.
However, earlier this year commissioners approved a so-called street maintenance fee projected to generate about $1.4 million.
Before setting the street fee, tight budgets often led commissioners to defer street repairs to help fund other projects, Commissioner Tudor Uhlhorn said after the hearing.
“It’s a dedicated amount of money that can’t be used for anything else except street maintenance,” Uhlhorn said.
Under a new ordinance, utility bills include a monthly $2.50 fee for apartments and other multi-family units; a $2.50 monthly fee for single-family homes using 1,000 gallons of water a month or less; a $4.50 monthly fee for single-family homes using more than 1,000 gallons a month; and an $8.50 monthly fee for commercial accounts.
The fee replaces a so-called infrastructure fee that charged utility customers $1 a month to help fund projects such as public building improvements.
In 2002, the city raised its tax rate from 54.1 cents to 57.9 cents.
Two years later, the commission cut the rate from about 59 cents to 58 cents.
– The city’s tax rate has hovered between 58 and 59 cents for more than 10 years.
– In 2002, the city raised its tax rate from 54.1 cents to 57.9 cents.
– Two years later, the city cut the rate from about 59 cents to 58 cents.
