City Council - Regular Meeting

Be kicked off by the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag led by me, your mayor. The Texas Pledge will be led by Chief of Police Larry Berg, and invocation will be led by Councilmember Dave Covington. Please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Please bow with me. Father, we love you. We thank you for your grace and for your mercy and for your steadfast love. Thank you for sustaining us and care of us and forgiving us when we fail you. We ask tonight that you give us wisdom as we consider the business of the city and pray that all that we say and do would honor and glorify you. In your son's name we pray. Amen.

All right, you may be seated. We will call this meeting to order at 531. First item on the agenda are public comments. If anyone wishes to make a statement or address the council on any item that we have influence over, they may do so. Limited to three minutes. I have at least one person signed up, but you don't have to sign up. So I have Jordan and Derek Jones. So take the stage. You got three minutes. Let us know.

Thank you. We'll direct this to staff. Thank you very much.

All right. Anyone else wish to address the council before we move on to our agenda? There being no other public comments, we will close the floor and reopen deliberation. First item on our agenda is our consent agenda. These items can be enacted by a single motion by the council, or they can be removed for discussion. Item 3 is adopting the minutes of the previous meetings, both July 28th regular council meeting and the workshop. Item 4 is adopting resolution approving a negotiated settlement between Atmos Cities Steering Committee and Atmos Energy Corporation Mid-Tex Division regarding the co

We have a motion and a second to adopt consent agenda items three through six. Any other comments? All in favor say aye.

Those opposed? It passes unanimously. Right. Items seven through eleven. Our budget, so the year, so the specific information here before Mr Rogers takes it away, we will be receiving a presentation on the fiscal year 2027 proposed annual budget for the city of Belton. This budget will raise more total property taxes than last year's budget by $1,194,804, 9.13%. And of that amount, $286,488 tax revenue from new property added to the tax roll here. Taxpayer impact statement. is the tax bill for the median valued homestead property in the city of Belton in the current year was $1,509. The estima

It's 52 million. You said about 52,000. Yes.

If it's delinquent or does the tax appraisal district get the extra? Because you pay penalties, right?

So of that nine, six, 18, how much of that is recoverable through delinquency versus unrecoverable, which is a protested appraiser?

So, sorry to keep pulling on the thread. So the number you're saying at 1057. The 3, what is that as far as a delinquency rate? So you're basing that on a 100% are you basing that on a 98% collection?

I can't remember all of this. Which can we kick in?

Does that earn interest? Yes. Okay. So if we move it left pocket or right pocket, it'll still earn the same interest. And the interest it earns goes to debt service or does it go to- Goes to debt service.

Was there some of the safety grants? That starts in... Or is that... This is... The terms was contributing to potential safety grants?

And like one of the actions tonight was basically rescinding one of those. So that would then come out of the library. Absolutely.

Yes, sir. So not to go down a rabbit hole. So as we make transfers to these capital funds, we see the balance of the tourist fund, the beginning balance, the income, the expenses and the end. But when we make transfers for roofs and air conditioners and trucks and capital projects, those are somewhere else. So this is not all inclusive of the cash balance. These are just the formal funds.

Is there a way we can get that in a snapshot so we can kind of at least keep pulse on this is, you know, these are the transfers coming in. These are our expenses. So that way we can kind of get it because we end up having these other funds. Right. Under these funds.

It would be good because all of that stuff gets buried. It just would be good to have this as an addendum to the budget documents, at least for council. Because we end up having those questions ourselves. That would help.

Well, there's a water usage above the sewer kind of cap, and so it's basically, it's probably saying we're not having the water as much now, and so they're, you know, so.

I would call those servers, not data centers. Those are servers.

I think, honestly, all these funds that I was referring to, if we just added, like we do some of the others, beginning balance, expenditures, you know, just to show, here's what we started with, here's what we'll do, and sometimes we'll draw it down, sometimes we build it up. It's like for fire trucks, right? Those kinds of things. Yeah.

All right. Well, that is a, uh, that was the received the presentation. Uh, so that's no action needed on item seven. So next item on the agenda is call for a public hearing on the city of Belton fiscal year, 2027 proposed annual budget. A lot of this stuff. You just heard me read. I will read it again because I think it's official. required to do in the minutes. This budget will raise more total property taxes than last year's budget by $1,194,804, or 9.13%. And of that amount, $286,488 is tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year. The impact statement for the

So this is calling for the public hearing. We are recommending September 8th, 2026 at 530 to be that public hearing. The chair would entertain a motion to call the public hearing.

Second to call the public hearing for the city of Belton fiscal year budget to be September 8th of 2026 at 530 here at Harris Community Center. Any comments or questions about the public hearing? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Passes unanimously. Item nine, discuss and consider a proposed property tax rate, the 2026 tax year, fiscal year 2027. I'll pause right here just for those who need, not familiar with this. What we do is we adopt a proposed rate, which is a rate that we have to set that basically sets the bar. We cannot go above it, but we can go below it. So while we may be

And this is net of those that have full exemptions or- Correct. Okay. This is taxable value.

Well, yeah, let's, for just a second. The state, the other subdivision of the government that helps govern citizens in Belton, the state, out of their benevolence, have granted veterans, disabled veterans, exemptions, and they are now exempting personal property tax on small businesses. which is paid for by the local taxing authority. Yet they put restrictions on us on being able to compensate by going up on our rate. And they also do not reimburse us to make us whole. So these are not statewide exemptions. These are local exemptions that your local elected officials are granting. I just want

It's almost $1.3 million in exemptions for military veterans. And I think it's a good program. I do. It's just unfair for those places, I don't know, Highland Park, that don't have that, where places like Harker Heights, Nolanville, and Belton do.

And whether it's exemptions or business personal property, whenever a taxpayer has their tax bill reduced by a certain amount, the costs associated with that savings still have to be spent in the city. We still have to police those streets. We still have to put out those fires. We still have to make sure the water and sewer work there. And so the tax bill is just picked up by the rest of the taxpayers.

In the local municipal town. Yeah. By the neighbors.

If they're going to put these yeah, or don't pass those, let the local if they're big on elections, have a local election where you could have. An exemption and then a corresponding tax increase to go with that exemption. Um.

But, but our, but our general fund property tax ad valorem tax revenue is around $10 million. This is roughly 10% of that. yeah you got if you look at it no if you look at the bottom it says total taxable value 2.5 million dollars i mean five billion dollars of that 2.24 right it's 10 percent yeah 10 percent of our ad valorem tax is exempted for that one particular class yes to get to of our net

No, they want 10% to also include all your other revenues, which are fees and sales tax and all those others.

I'm sorry? Or new exemptions taken away.

Yeah. So help me, I'm going to ask a rhetorical question, but it's not. So help me understand how no new revenue, right, So you said that these rates are based on the appraised value times the rate. And the appraised value times the rate should... So if appraised values go up, our effective rate goes down. If appraised values go down, our effective values go up. So what you would hopefully see is from one year to the next, that delta would be zero, right? But the delta is negative. And it's negative because...

No, I think the thing is, you would think on the no new, whatever the no new revenue rate, that that would be calculated based on, well, 263 times a rate that's going to be higher is going to be a change from the prior year of zero. Yes. That's what the definition, when you read their definition, that's what it is.

But that's not what it is because they took out a lot of exemptions that impacts that number. And now everybody else has to pay more, but we don't get credit for that. I'm just saying, even the way that the math is stacked up is against the local municipality from an optics standpoint. Reality is we got to pay bills. We got to pay for firemen. We got to pay for police. We got to pay for streets. But they changed the math to make it look like we continue to dig deeper into folks' pockets when the state has done so through exemptions. Anyway. I just, it's difficult math. Why isn't it just zero?

One more question. One penny on the tax rolls brings how many dollars? Good, $200,000. So our exemptions, $1.2 million plus another $300,000, $1.5 million, is around $7.6 million? $7.5 million. $6.5 million, $7.7 million, $7.6 million. Okay. $200,000. That's great.

Yeah, just to cover it. Yeah, 7 cents, just to cover it. Which is more than 10%. Back to it. More than 10% of 56. More than 10%. Yet they say it's not 10%. It's more than 10%.

Yeah, that's right. Truth in taxation. Based on our definition.

Meaning it's too late to call an election to be able to vote.

That's correct. Too late because you don't want to.

Well, that's the story you just said right there, the, that graph. Yeah, the tax rate, you'd come down.

I think we had quite a few, as you went through the presentation. Yeah. Comments? I'm just...

Chair, would entertain a motion on the property tax proposed rate, not final.

We have a motion and a second to approve the proposed prox rate of the voter approved rate of 5619 per 100. I will say this. The legislature has talked about having any time we have an increase, which this would be considered an increase, it would have to go for a vote. There's part of me wants to go up 7 cents above the voter approval rate. So we can vote on the exemptions that have been in granted because if we were able to be made, we could do everything we need to do to take care of our employees. We could do healthcare. We could take care of streets. We could do meet and confirm. We could

Okay. Okay. Roll call vote. Okay. Let's vote. Motion to second. Yep.

Aye. All right. Passes unanimously. Item 10, call for a public hearing on the proposed tax rate for the fiscal year 2026. I'm sorry, fiscal, the 2026 tax year, which is the 2027 fiscal year. That's confusing. Sorry. That's confusing. Multiple years in the same year.

All right, so the proposed public hearing is the same as the last public hearing, which would be September 8th at 530. Chair, we're in a motion. So moved. Motion and second to call the public hearing for the 2026 tax year, fiscal year 27 on September 8th at 530 p.m. here at Harris Community Center. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Right. Passes unanimously. Item 11, review and consider adopting the financial policies for the city of Belton. Mr. Rogers.

And then, of course, it would go down $100,000.

Or make sure they're voting on something they really want. If you want to drive on the streets, vote for this. If not, we're shutting them all down.

So if you go back one more, I think the one thing about your assumptions, I will say this. If you look at sales tax at five years, it's 6.68. Three years, it's 3.35. It's not really averaging. We're seeing a trend down in growth because what we saw is a huge bubble five to six years ago. Everybody started ordering at home. We saw now, you know, so we see a lot of sales tax where we saw leakage to our other communities. A lot of those big box retailers have folded the you know, have folded and instead it's now all delivery. So I think we'll start seeing people shopping out a little bit more. I

Yeah. Yeah. All right. So that was review and consider. So you need us to. Resolution of 20. You're recommending 25%. Correct.

We have a motion a 2nd to adopt the 25%. Financial policy free funds presented any other comments or questions.

So, if we don't. If we don't adopt 25%, if we just say we're sticking with 30. Is there a difference in our bond rating between. Your policy 30, and you're not meeting it, or you're just bumping your. your policy down to 25 something needed? I mean, if we have to go issue debt, is there a difference from the bond market?

So we have a motion and a second to adopt the 25%. All in favor, say aye.

to Daniel and Dave voted no. Thank you. All right. So motion passes 5-2. That concludes the regular scheduled council meeting. We will go into executive session. We will not take any action after executive session, so you don't have to hang around for any votes. And I'll go ahead and read this in for the record and take a pause for the cause.