TAFT, Tx — The Taft City Council voted unanimously to adopt the 2024-25 fiscal year budget after addressing concerns from residents about a significant increase in the city’s property tax rate.
In the adopted budget, Taft will see a 38.22% increase from the previous fiscal year.
“This is the lesser of the evils,” Council Member Chris Keeney told residents when asked about alternatives to raising the tax rate. “This increase makes it easier to run the city as it has been. Without it, we would have to cut employees. You’re going to lose policemen, you’re going to lose public works employees.”
While the vote on the budget passed unanimously, the vote to approve the increased tax rate did not. Council Member Alonso Molina was the sole dissenter, expressing concerns about the impact on Taft residents living on a fixed income. City Manager Ryan Smith noted that individuals 65 and older with a fixed income should not be affected by the rate hike.
The property tax rate was not the only concern raised by residents during Tuesday's meeting. “We got millions of dollars missing. Don't know where they're at. How, how are we gonna account for that?" resident Glen Serzi asked during public comments. He continued, "We got an auditor. He didn’t turn in an audit. How can you do a budget if you don't have the audit complete?”
"They're fake numbers," one resident repeated. This occurred while another resident attempted to ask questions related to the budget and resulted in Keeney requesting the woman to stop interrupting.
Even before Tuesday's meeting, the budget was causing concerns for residents looking to obtain a copy. According to state law, budgets must be posted 30 days prior and "the proposed budget shall be available for inspection by any person." KRIS 6 found that the budget posted was only made available on Sunday.
Within the posted budget, only the proposed revenue and expenditures for the 2024-25 fiscal year were included. It is required that all posted budgets include figures from the previous fiscal year.
While the posted budget did not include this information for residents, KRIS 6 obtained a copy of the city's full budget proposal, including a more detailed look at the previous and upcoming fiscal year.
Water rates were also a topic of discussion. While Corpus Christi announced a 15% increase in water rates, Smith assured residents that Taft is not planning another rate increase. According to the in-depth budget proposal, the city expects to bring in $2.2 million in water sales revenue for 2025, a significant jump from the $1.5 million budgeted for 2024. However, the city only managed to collect $927,642 in water sales this year.
A similar situation occurred with wastewater revenue. The city has budgeted $870,000 for 2025, slightly down from the previous year’s $893,022. However, the city only brought in $680,374 in 2024.
When looking at the overall revenue the City of Taft hopes to bring in, its sights are set for $4.2 million in total revenues, a sizable jump from the $2.2 million for 2023-24.
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