Remarks by Jane Hughson
728 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 8 of 30
- Play at 46:00
“All right. Thank you. Very much. And hold on a second. I got to say something even before you read that. All right. The next item, item 16, is not a public hearing, but we must complete item 16 before we can proceed to item 17 for which there is a public hearing.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 46:40
“Okay, and to comply with the law. I need to read the following text, which is what I just said. But this is the formal one. Although item 16 is not a public hearing, we're taking it up now before the tax rate item number 17 is required by state law. State law requires a separate action to ratify the property tax revenue increase reflected in the budget when more revenue will be raised from property taxes than in the previous fiscal year. This item is not a public hearing. Presentation on item 16. Is that correct, or do we need to?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 47:52
“So this has been read, but I don't have a motion or a second yet cause we haven't had a presentation or I've opened the public hearing. So we're just going to set this aside totally. and then we can come back to it. We'll just start over with 16?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 48:09
“I think that is excellent, but I was kind of afraid to ask about that.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 48:16
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 48:34
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 49:49
“I asked for that, and I thought maybe you're right, absolutely. I asked if we could get that, and yeah, looks like they were trying to get there. Thank you. But you're absolutely right. Everybody needs to be looking at this. So what do y'all think? I can't do this. That's not an annual increase. That's a monthly increase.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 50:23
“For the incremental increase or user fees and stuff. Right. Oh, activity center. That that we're going to talk about here a little bit.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 51:25
“Absolutely. And mine was to get this on the table so that we could even discuss it. So we're thinking alike on that one. But I'm looking at San Marcos High School. An increase monthly of $647.49. I can't do that. I could do some, but not that.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 51:48
“Just keep your microphone on, please. Yeah, it's the third from the bottom.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 51:55
“Well, I need to find out legally if it's a percent, does it have to be a percent? Can we put a cap? Can we say businesses are a different percent from residential? I don't know what we can do, and that was my question. There may not be much option.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 52:54
“Yeah, and what's missing from this, but I made my own spreadsheet and inserted the column. was what the current fee is. You said it, but it wasn't up here. For example, for premium outlets, they've got a lot of almost 3 million square feet of impervious cover. So their bill right now, correct me if I'm wrong, is $16,547.64 a month that they're paying. So this 5.8% increase is how you get that 959 77. That's not their fee. That's the increase. So that's bringing them from 16,005 to, um, you know, 17,000 something.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 54:05
“You're right, because it gave us how much that would generate that we could do the payment and the size of the project.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 54:47
“Yeah, for the residential where it was, you know, less than a dollar. But if it all has to be the same percent per the ERU? Yes. Equivalent residential unit. Yes. I think I'm going to have to go lower myself because I just, I can't do... the other sheet. So let me pull up my spreadsheet. Does this say how much, see this doesn't tell us, this one doesn't tell us what the total is, but it does tell us that for option three, which is 1.9%, it would generate $10 million, and up to five, the 5.8, 24 million.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 55:40
“Yeah, that's fine. I'm looking for this. I'm trying to open my spreadsheet. So for y'all, you'll notice that the 1.9, that would increase premium $300 versus $950. For the high school, it would be $200 instead of 647. Folks, I'm going to make a motion that we change.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 56:31
“for the residential was going back to in your packet page, whatever this is. because the difference in the current rate for a typical residential, $14.90, 1% was $15.05, 1.9% was $15.18, and the 5.8% was $15.76. It was $0.86 a month. And, you know, that didn't look too bad. Right, but they're...”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 57:36
“That's true. If we could go back to the other slide. I'm looking at, and what you did, this sample here is great. This is fine. But I'm glad you showed the premium outlets to be an increase of almost $1,000 a month. And for the high school, it would be an increase of $647 a month. And that's just for the high school.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 58:29
“No, it was just on the list, and it's just one of the ones that I noticed that I went, that would be, that's a hard one for me.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:00:13
“But remember, they didn't propose any increase, and I'm the one that said our community knows the importance of this.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:00:35
“Y'all don't remember the discussion we had about a year ago on this? They came in and asked for an exemption. We said no.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:01:42
“OK. So I'm just going to give this a try. If it fails, it fails. But I'm going to make a motion that we go with 3% instead of the 5.8. Recall that staff had not proposed any increase. So this is kind of half. So that's my motion. And I'm going to see if I get a second.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:02:21
“I guess I'm making a motion to change it to three, but then that's an amendment, then we would still have to pass the motion as amended.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:02:38
“What that would do is that would make for San Marcos High School, basically three is a little more than half of 5.8. So that would make it $334.91 instead of $647. So if there's any more discussion on this, if there's not, let's vote. Let's see where this goes, and then we'll get back on track with budget. But thank y'all for showing us the business so that we know, and at least if we have this, it's a conscious decision that has been made to go with this increase. So thank y'all.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:03:26
“I think this is too big a hit at once. for these businesses. I wish we had been incrementally raising this one and we could maybe even be at 5.8 now, but we didn't. So I'm concerned about the big hit. It'll help residences a little, but I mean, this is not every...”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:04:46
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 15, 2026