Council approves budget, tax rate

Hallettsville city council members approved the 2024-25 city budget and its funding mechanism in a special called meeting Monday evening at city hall.

Monday’s meeting followed a public hearing on the budget held Aug. 19, which itself followed council’s approval of the proposed budget numbers on Aug. 2.

According to the ordinance, council approved adopting the new city budget. The 2025 budget will raise some $363,204 more in property taxes than current year’s budget holds. Roughly $11,831 of that amount comes from new properties added to the tax rolls this year.

To generate such revenues, council also on Aug. 26 adopted a tax rate which will charge the taxpayer just over a quarter per $100 valuation for the city’s maintenance and operations funds, and slightly more than two dimes per $100 valuation applied to its debt service accounts.

In total, that amounts to 45.81 cents per $100 valuation, per the ordinance approved Monday.

The tax rate currently sits at 0.2662 for the city of Hallettsville.

Those who pay their city taxes early will also qualify for percentage discounts. Council approved discounts at 3% if paid in October, 2% if paid in November, and 1% if paid in December.

City administrator Grace Ward noted that council members heard a presentation from Langford Community Management Services on the General Land Office’s Resilient Communities Program’s Comprehensive Plan Process.

The council also offered two first readings on projects headed up by the Hallettsville Economic Development Corp that exceed the EDC’s spending threshold of $10,000. One involves a roughly 3 acre land tract purchase off County Road 200 and the other involves extending city utilities to FM 2314 between U.S. 90 Alt and Cemetery Road in Hallettsville.

No citizen comments were made on either project.