During its Monday night meeting, West U City Council approved a resolution proposing a tax rate increase for 2010 and scheduled public hearings to discuss the tax increase.
Council is required by the Texas Property Tax Code to record a vote and schedule two public hearings if the city raises taxes.
The proposed property tax rate for 2010 is $.38005 per $100 valuation. The tax rate that is adopted by council could be lower than the proposed rate.
Last year’s total tax rate was $.35875 per $100 valuation.
Council will hold its first public hearing for the proposed tax increase on Oct. 11 at 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers.
The second public hearing will be held on Oct. 18 at 6:30 p.m.
Council will adopt a budget in October and then adopt a tax rate that supports the approved budget.
Patrick Henry says
Tax, Tax, Tax. When governments across the country are looking to reduce spending this city council calls for nearly a 6% increase in taxes. I am sure they are going to say they are being forced to increase taxes due to blah blah blah but the real reason are that they are all big government tax and spend addicts.
Selling off the West U Country Club would be a start to fiscal responsibility. Have every property owner pay their fair share of taxes by eliminating age based property tax deductions.
West U citizens - haven’t we had enough!
6% increase does seem pretty steep. I doubt HCAD valuations went down (if they even did go down) nearly that much in West U. I think city council is going to have to do some explaining on this one. Hopefully they haven’t been basing their long term budget on 5% plus annual property valuation increases as eventually the new build infill will be done and existing houses have already appreciated substantially and will be lucky to keep up with inflation from here on out. We could have a fiscal disaster coming if the city has been making long term commitments (pensions…etc) based on overly rosy forecasts of property appreciation.
Why is it that government has no discipline to control spending? It seems at every level of government, these people that serve say they want for the good of the community, state, country, etc…but all they do is raise taxes to help pay for their own little project…I am absolutely sick and tired of the…!!!
I'm cutting my spending WU Resident says
What a surprise!!! Build a GIANT rec center during a recession and wonder why we can’t pay for it without a tax increase. I agree with the resident above-let’s unload this unnecessary burden and get back to basics. I’m cutting back and it is time that the City Government cut back as well: that includes pay schedules and pensions. GET REAL IN CITY HALL!!!
Patrick Henry says
George will ask for specific cuts and then reject any suggestions because “we can’t do that cause the people want that program or it is needed, etc.” All talk, no cuts.
I’m not so worried about the current budget year - it’s the long term that is more concerning. Politicians (generically) have a history of kicking the can down the road by keeping current salaries and benefits lower through shifting compensation to longer term pension and other benefit programs. This makes them look good in the short term by holding down immediate salary costs and pushes the mess to the next generation of politicians (the next guy) to clean up. I have no idea how West U falls in relation to this generic framework, but that’s my broader concern rather than any one budget year cycle.
Lonf term resident says
I have been a home owner in WU for almost 20 years. In that time I saw multitudes of low appraisal properties ($200-$500) be replaced by $750 -$2M+ valued properties. I assume that based on this increase in taxable evaluations that the tax income for WU increased between 50-300+% at any tax rate. While we have spent a lot of money on infarstructure (water,sewage, streets,lights, etc.) I do not understand how a small decrease in evaluations could merit a tax rate increase unless council is unwilling to tackle reducing the budget through these economical times. We all know that Harris county tax acessor will have the evaluations back up in a very few years. In the mean time we need to run our city on less, like a lot of our citizens are aready doing. Also I want to comment on the WU Parks and Recreation program. It is my understanding that since the new facilties opened that membership has surpassed the previous years resulting in the recreational centers covering 85% of their cost. This is a very high return rate for community centers/pools. I think you will find that the City of Bellaire,Southside place do not fare as well. While these facilities are very costly to implement,they do have a tremendous value to a lot of our citizens. I also believe the facilities do add value to our properties in the real estate market over the long term. I believe if more citizens supported the centers by using the facilities there would be no burden on the WU budget and the centers may even have an operating profit. For what you and your family receive for the cost involved, the bang for your buck couldn’t be better. Again I believe the WU council must resist the “path of least resistance” by increasing taxes but tackle the WU fiscal budget as if it was their own household budget and only as a last resort increase taxes on the WU citizens.