Crockett Council Holds Second Public Hearing on Proposed Tax Rate

By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter

CROCKETT – When compared to the tension of the last two Crockett City Council meetings, the conclave held on Monday, Aug. 20 was a walk in the park.

Following a public forum where the tensions could be felt just below the surface, a public hearing on the fiscal year (FY) 2019 proposed tax rate was held.

A question about the current tax rate was posed to the council and City Administrator John Angerstein replied the tax rate was currently $0.586094 per $100 of property valuation.

“The proposed tax rate is $0.5967091 per $100 of property valuation. This is approximately a one cent increase,” Angerstein said.

He said the effective tax which would bring in the same amount of money as the previous year would be $).587041, a tenth of one cent increase.

According to Section 26.16 of the Texas Property Tax Code, “The effective tax rate is the rate that would generate the same amount of revenue in the current tax year as was generated by a taxing unit’s adopted tax rate in the preceding tax year from property that is taxable in both the current tax year and the preceding tax year.”

The FY 2019 rollback rate is $0.620675 which is “… the highest tax rate a taxing unit may adopt before requiring voter approval at an election,” according to the tax code.

If the city kept the current tax rate, Angerstein explained, less revenue would be generated. At the effective rate, there would be a $23,718 shortfall in meeting the proposed budget. Tax would go up by $0.71 annually at the effective rate.

At the proposed rate, there would be a $23,273 increase in revenue over the previous year and would fund the proposed budget. Based on a property value of a $75,000 home, the property tax would increase by $8.02 annually.

Using the rollback rate of $0.620675, the city of Crockett would receive an additional $74,256 in revenue which would meet the needs of the proposed budget and provide approximately $50,000 to go towards street repair. Under the effective rate, property tax on a $75,000 home would increase by $25.94.

Because this was only a public hearing, no action was taken on the matter. The proposed tax rate and FY 2019 proposed budget will be adopted by the council in the next few weeks.

In other matters brought before the council:

• Approval was given for the closure of the 1100 block of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Aug. 24 for a “Back-to-School” Fun Day.
• Specific Use permits were granted to Margie Nelson, Bill Seale, Laurent V. Ewing and Deidra Jones for the intent of placing mobile homes at various city locations.

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].