Why are my taxes going up again in Texas?
admin | Dec 25, 2011 | Comments 6
Question by : Why are my taxes going up again in Texas?
Corpus Christi City Council endorses a higher tariff rate
By Jessica Savage
Corpus Christi Caller Times
Posted June 24, 2011 at 5:03 p.m., updated June 24, 2011 at 5:09 p.m.
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CORPUS CHRISTI — The City Council on Friday endorsed City Administrator Ron Olson’s proposal for a $ 662 million budget that calls for a higher tariff rate during a workshop meeting.
The council did not take a formal vote on the tariff rate or the budget. A public hearing is scheduled for noon Tuesday during the council meeting at City Hall, 1201 N. Leopard St.
Olson answered questions by conference call Friday as council members discussed his recommendation to use the effective rate, the rate which would bring the same property tariff revenue as last year. This year, because of falling property values, the effective tariff rate would be about 5 cents higher per $ 100 in valuation, raising the rate to 63.5 cents. The city must close a $ 11.5 million budget shortfall.
Five members said they supported Olson’s recommendation; four did not. Those for it were Mayor Joe Adame and council members Chris Adler, David Loeb, Nelda Martinez and John Marez.
Councilman Larry Elizondo said he wasn’t convinced city staff has made all the cuts it could. Kevin Kieschnick, Priscilla Leal and Mark Scott also were against using the effective rate.
Elizondo proposed the council and city staff work collectively during the next several weeks to trim millions more from the budget. He sought after that administer to go quicker by asking department managers to make the cuts.
“I have to do as much as I can before I go back to the taxpayers and question them for more money,” he said.
Martinez said she thinks Olson is moving at the aptly pace since he started May 2.
“I will say that no one up here wants to raise taxes, but we also know that we can’t compromise safety and long term plotting,” she said. “The bottom line is we have to have the job done with eyes of experience.”
Since Olson took the job, he has consolidated seven departments, reshuffled assistant city administrator positions, questioned for an investigation into corruption allegations and presented a new city budget. He said he needs more time to do a exact evaluation of each department to determine whether there is room for more cuts and where.
Also, Olson said there are many areas of the city that are not operating as they should be such as the streets department.
“We don’t have any where near enough money in the streets budget to take care of them,” he said. “We need four to five to six times that money in that department than we have.”
A part of his department by department review will be ready to share with the council in the next three months, he said. Those results could principal to a leaner workforce, he said.
Council members also gave permission for staff to use money from the city reserve funds if needed. There is about $ 6.1 million set up your sleeve for a rainy day. The city is required to keep 10 percent of appropriations in that fund. Anything over that the city could use to balance the budget.
Although Olson said he want to grow that reserve fund to more than 15 percent, he said it may be necessary to use those funds in the coming years if property values continue to decline.
To account for the $ 11.5 million shortfall, the proposed budget includes $ 5.8 million in cuts from city services and using about $ 2 million from the city’s reserve funds to balance the budget. The effective rate makes up another $ 4 million.
Cuts include 66 fewer full-time jobs, less frequent park maintenance and closing two public swimming pools. The cuts affect nearly every city department.
Public safety saw the most reductions, by about $ 2.5 million. Money allocated for chronically unfilled police and fire positions will instead go back into the general fund to be apply among other departments. The city plans to boost funding for animal care services and code enforcement, which staff have said are underfunded.
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Preeminent answer:
Answer by Zombie g
sounds like they hitched their wagons to property taxes… then property values took a nose dive and they are scrambling to fill in the lofty hole…
Know better? House your own answer in the comments!
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The REAL tale on the Texas economy.
But conservatives shouldn’t be too triumphal. Texas didn’t suffer from a ruinous housing bubble like nearby Arizona and Nevada, thankfulness to regulations that limited debt on homes and restricted “cash-out” refinancing (a common practice in states like Florida and California, in which people got emancipated cash for refinancing their homes). As a upshot, Texas didn’t fare as naughtily when the housing market cratered this time: Only 6 percent of Texas borrowers were in or near foreclosure, versus a inhabitant average of nearly 10 percent. Two cheers for intrusive regulations.
Other aspects of Texas’s success come down to sheer luck. The state is home to large oil and gas reserves. As oil prices have climbed over the past decade, new rigs have sprouted up like toadstools, while the natural-gas craze has led to economic booms in North Texas and the Eagle Ford Shale near San Antonio. The Dallas Fed has found that, every time oil prices rise 10 percent, Texas gets a 0.5 percent GDP bump. That’s hardly a touch other states can replicate.
http://www.tnr.com/photograph/article/politics/magazine/90524/rick-perry-economy-gop-texas
You answered your own question with your question.
It’s ONLY the beginning, Amigo! They will have to do the same thing here in Ft Worth if housing values keep falling off the cliff! It will be all over the US as along as housing keeps dropping in value!
Thank You Barney Frank & Chris Dodd!!
It would much more accurate for your question to be why are your taxes going up in Corpus Christi than to imply from this article alone that taxes in Texas are going up. Sounds like you are already prepping yourself to spin any news back against Perry would be my only guess for your question being phrased as you have.
Texas isn’t raising your taxes, Corpus Cristi is. If you can’t caution the difference, then you deserve to have your taxes raised. If you don’t like it, go to some of the more conservative areas in Texas.
@ Obama beat Trump – More failed liberal judgment. You referenced CA as being one of the states that had regulations that “limited debt on homes and restricted ‘cash-out’ refinancing” as to the reason why Texas didn’t suffer as much as AZ or NV in regards to the housing crisis, but of course, failed to realize that CA was one of the states that was hit toughest with the housing crisis.
They are going up in Corpus… not texas as a whole. Must be a modify of W B Ray High School.