It’s that time of year again when our local government entities are creating their budgets and setting tax rates for the upcoming year. They are required by law to hold public hearings on the topics.
All of the meetings are open to the public, and the public may participate in the hearing.
The following public hearings are scheduled for Breckenridge and Stephens County in the upcoming weeks:
Stephens County
The Stephens County Commissioners will hold two special meetings on Monday, Aug. 28, at the Stephens County Courthouse, 200 W. Walker St. The first meeting will begin at 9 a.m. and will cover the proposed county budget for 2018. The commissioners will take action on the proposed budget at the conclusion of the public hearing. The second meeting will immediately follow the first meeting and will cover the tax rate for 2018. The commissioners will take action on the 2018 tax at the conclusion of the hearing. The tax rate proposed is $0.7516 per $100 valuation for property. The proposed effective tax rate is $0.7516 per $100 valuation.
City of Breckenridge
The City of Breckenridge will hold the second of two hearings regarding the proposed property tax rate at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 29, at the City offices, 105 N. Rose Ave. The first hearing on the tax rate was Tuesday, Aug. 22. The proposed tax rate is $1.03650 per $100 valuation. That exceeds the effective rate of $1.01942 per $100 valuation. According to the notice by the City of Breckenridge, the effective tax rate is the total tax rate needed to raise the same amount of property tax revenue for the City from the same properties in both the 2016 tax year and the 2017 tax year. Last year’s tax rate was $1.04000 per $100 valuation.
The City of Breckenridge also will have a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 5, in the City offices to consider the budget for the fiscal year 2017-2018.
Breckenridge Independent School District
BISD will hold a public meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 28, in the BISD Board Room, 208 N. Miller St., to discuss the school district’s budget that will determine the tax rate that will be adopted. The school tax rate is separated in two parts, maintenance/operations and payment on voter-approved debt. The maintenance and operation rate will remain at same at. $1.04 per $100 value, but the payment on voter-approved debt will drop by 1 cent per $100 value from $1.1785 per $100 value to $1.1685.
For more information on the BISD tax rate and proposed budget projects, see the Breckenridge Texan article “Revenue windfall allows school district to catch up on some projects.”
