TYLER, Texas (KLTV) – Housing tax rates will not change for Longview despite expected higher revenues.
“If the value of your property has increased, which we don’t do, the assessment district does, or if you built a new property that wasn’t on the books before, then that will now be taxed. Overall, the city will get a few hundred thousand dollars more in property taxes, but we do that while keeping tax rates stable,” said Richard Yeakley, spokesman for the city of Longview.
The City Council discussed fees and taxes last night and Mayor Kristen Ishihara presented the changes.
Concerns about budgets for road maintenance and mentoring programs were central to public comments. The council listened to the public, but other changes were made to compensate. This included cutting all one-time purchases.
“Cuts have to be made in the budget. Fewer fees that would bring in revenue for the city obviously mean that we have to talk about cutting some things from the originally proposed budget,” Mayor Ishihara said at the budget meeting yesterday.
Taxable property value rose from nearly $7.5 billion to $9.42 billion within two years.
At the same time, the tax rate fell from 0.5789 cents per 100 dollars to 0.5619 cents.
The city’s total operating budget will be approximately $95.5 million.
The council has cited its tight budget throughout the process and at one point even discussed increasing property taxes.
Ultimately, water and sewerage fees were increased because the municipality considered property taxes to be too high.
“During the discussions that followed, one of the things that was discussed was whether we were willing to raise property taxes. Ultimately, it was decided that given the difficult times that all citizens are going through, it was not the right time to ask citizens to pay more property taxes,” Yeakley said.
Another budget cut affected the garbage collection contract with the House of Disciples in Longview.
Instead, the budget will be cut by $75,000 to $50,000 and a decision will be made later on how to deal with waste disposal.
All rights reserved.
