Taylor has a brand-new budget for Fiscal Year 2024, featuring funds for additional emergency services personnel, a 3% cost-of-living increase for staff, an increase in the homestead exemption and plans to get started on a new $53 million municipal building that will house City Hall, the Police Department and Municipal Court.
But not everyone is happy about it.
At the Taylor City Council meeting Aug. 24, city leaders by a 4 to 1 margin, adopted a $62 million budget, effective Oct. 1, 2023 – Sept. 30, 2024, which represents a 28% increase from last year, and approved a 63 cents per $100 of valuation property tax rate, which is .02 cents lower than last year’s, but still an increase of about 5.22% for the average homeowner.
“Our tax rate has constantly come down with this council, but I was hoping it would come down a lot more,” said At-large Councilman Dwayne Ariola who cast the lone dissenting votes. “I agree with raising the homestead exemption and a lot of these CIP’s (Capital Improvement Projects) are needed, but it all doesn’t have to happen this fiscal year.”
But members of council also offered praise to Taylor’s Chief Financial Officer Jeff Wood for this year’s budget.
“I want to thank Jeff and his team and all the directors for all the hard work you all put in to get Taylor where it is today,” said District 1 Councilman Gerald Anderson. “There was a time when Taylor had a really low tax rates, but nothing was getting done. Some council had to step up to make sure we had the money that we needed to afford the things that we actually needed to do. You can’t have everything, but I think we have done a phenomenal job of making sure we Taylor is in a great place for our future.”
Other highlights of the budget include monies for additional public safety staff and continuing debt payments toward drainage improvements, nearly $4.5 million for upgrades to facilities and equipment, assistance to senior citizens, and more. In addition, the new budget calls for raising water utility rates by 8%, but it does not increase sewer rates.
At the meeting, some residents used the citizens communication portion to voice their concerns about the way taxpayer resources were being handled.
“I actually got here because my city kept raising their taxes,” said resident Taylor Stubbs, who spoke during a public hearing on the FY ’24 tax rate. “My (former) city El Paso has one of the highest tax rates in the whole state next to Dallas … I understand you guys want projects. I understand it’s for the community, but quite sadly I feel for our disabled, or old or elderly. This is gentrification almost.”
Resident Kristine Torris said she wished the expanded revenue and debt issue would go towards fixing roads and not for building the new municipal complex.
“The roads in this town look like a thirdworld country, at least some of them do,” Torris said. “You can lose a car. You can drop a transmission. People have blown tires ... At a million dollars a mile, you could do 53 miles of road in this town. That’s a quality-of-life issue. That’s an economic vitality issue.”
Nevertheless, resident Terry Burris commended the city for raising the homestead exemption for Over 65 and Disabled Persons by $10,000 to $50,000 per household.
“This is going to seem weird, but I wanted to thank y’all for raising the exemption because I turned 65 last year,” Burris said. “It’s going to look sweet ... But maybe going forward in budget years that we always get a presentation on what we are spending and on the cost-cutting initiatives that you have.” For more information on the budget, go to https:// www.ci.taylor.tx.us/ ArchiveCenter/ ViewFile/Item/4753.
