Remarks by Luke Potts
45 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 0:58
“Please bow with me. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for all the servants we have in this room. We are always willing to step up and be there for our community. We just ask that you bless our conversations tonight and help us to lead a great discussion about our community with respect to each other and to all those involved. And please bless our city. Please bless our city staff. Please bless our state. In your name we pray. Amen.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 4:43
“I will say when it comes to this fee schedule, I have a hard time with several of the increases. And I think it hits a lot of different people in our community. I can give multiple examples, but if you just take the increase in cost for when it comes to builders and development, it's a significant increase. And I understand increase in fees, you know, when they need to happen, if they're tied to a specific cost, um, and that cost gets increased. But, you know, if you take like the, you know, just an example of the, increase for plat reviews where it goes from $150 to $1,000. We're not all of…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 7:11
“I would just say constituents that I spoke to that are builders did have issues.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 10:47
“All right. I would just make one last comment. And that's the, you know, I agree. That's what staff has worked toward is, you know, having recouping the cost of a total service. I just don't feel like that has to be done on every service. I don't feel like every public service needs a fee and it needs to break even.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 11:40
“We can change all of the sales tax, property tax.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 11:48
“We can change how the allocation is of the sales tax.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 11:56
“You're exactly right. You brought it up and I was just clarifying that that can be changed.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 12:31
“But these are new raises and fees. It's coming from... No, it's... I think they're new fees. They're not new. There are new fees. Yes, there are.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 13:12
“And I disagree because we're here to set... You can disagree that two plus two equals four doesn't make it different. But there are reasons that we have had these lower fees in the past, and a lot of it is to... help builders, help developers to not have a question about what the cost was. That's correct.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 13:44
“I'm not interrupting you. I'd like to finish my point. And sometimes there does need to be a collective from the general fund to help with these fees to make it less volatile. So like, for example, the fee for the curb cuts and the taps, I forgot the exact term of that fee that Scott presented that got moved to a formula. You know, that changes to where it was a flat fee of $1,500. And now it's a formula that includes all cost and labor. So it's going from $1,500 to $1,500. What could end up being $5,000, you know, beforehand builders could plan for that expense. And now they don't know.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 19:10
“tighter next year let's say I you know my view on raising taxes period is that it should only be done when there's no other way we can do it and you know currently I want to say for me if I were to vote for a tax increase I want to be able to go to my constituents and say that we tried everything to not raise taxes But I don't feel like that's been done. I think there are multiple, as you mentioned, solutions that could help us not raise taxes. You know, when we're raising revenue by 9.13%, you know, $1.19 million, you know, A good chunk of that is burdened by our current citizens. That's not…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 22:14
“And so I also believe that it's worth looking at our sales tax and our sales tax allocation. Because right now, there's about... Again, sales tax is not this discussion.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 22:36
“You are grandstanding. I'm explaining the position I have for my vote on this item. And I'm explaining to my constituents where I'm coming from when I vote on this.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 22:55
“And you live in Belton. I understand. And people up here live in Belton.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 22:59
“And they're listening to this recording at some point.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 23:09
“I'm sorry. I want to finish what I'm saying.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 23:17
“I believe that. We can also look at the sales tax allocation because currently there's around $4 million a year going to the VEDC, which with only expenses of 1.2. So it's just the question of, should we look at how we allocate that to be used on more things that the general fund cover or property tax relief? Not to mention this year, we got $2.4 million from the Brazos River Authority. That $2.4 million has no restrictions legally on it. If we need to raise $1.19 million, that money can be used to cover that cost and not have to raise taxes. And so I don't believe, I believe there are many…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 24:51
“Any other comments or questions about the amount of money we're raising?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 29:08
“I'll just make a quick comment that I, you know, in the past three or four years, we've really seen appraisals shoot through the roof and people have really burdened a big tax, you know, tax payment based on that. And so I think we should do everything we could to not raise taxes. And I think there are ways we could do no new revenue and be able to accomplish that.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 29:45
“Right. But that's just one little sliver of all the different people. And there's an extra $1.2 million that are going to be almost a 10% increase that's going to be burdened by our citizens, our constituents. Someone's paying that money.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 26:20
“I did just have one more question. In my mind, I thought it was a nonprofit that was running the museum. Is this purely... Run and funded by the Bell County, by just the county? Yes, it's the county operation.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 32:43
“That does not take away what Stephanie said about the caveat of must have a strategic plan.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 33:26
“I have 1 question is there a timeframe on there for. high strategic plan? Does it need to be done by X?”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 42:00
“I just, I share similar concern, not so much about it being duplexes, but throughout this whole process, looking at I 35 and I 14, the only thing that's been consistent is that nothing's been consistent and we still have never gotten a final design. And so I hate for the owner of this property. to go through this and all of a sudden he's got that jug handle going through the middle of the property. Cause we don't know everything tech stock has told us pretty much a month or two later, it changes. And so, um, I'm just concerned as the word you, you know, I feel like it's preliminary. You know,…”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026
- Play at 47:07
“You now have 3 minutes per individual for or against.”
City Council · Aug 25, 2026