Gonzales City Council discusses tax rate, budget at public hearing

Gonzales City Council members held a public hearing on the proposed 2025-26 budget and tax rate on Thursday, Sept. 4, that also included a workshop where discussion centered around what priorities the city should focus on — and what tax rate would support them.

Council will officially vote on the budget and tax rate at their Sept. 11 regular meeting at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

Mayor Isaac Anzaldua named things on his “wish list” of needs for the city, which included new in-car systems, laptops and body worn cameras for the police department; funding for the summer youth program; funding for senior citizens and the Mental Health Advisory Board; a 2.5 percent pay raise for city employees; supplied uniforms for city employees; a new fairway mower for the golf course; a new 55-gallon water trailer for the street department; additional books, DVDs and videos for the Robert Brothers Jr. Library; investment in citywide beautification; hiring a new public works director; hiring a code enforcement officer; and shirts and jackets for members of the council to wear when representing the city at events and conferences.

“A public works director — is the city in need of one? Absolutely,” Anzaldua said. “What that does is it allows the city manager to be able to do his job, to control the city and work with the city to handle administration, not necessarily the day to day operations of each department. You’ve got to be able to trust — and some businesses call it a foreman.

“You’ve got to have somebody who can go out and do the job and do it effectively, and communicate back in that jobs were done who keeps us on task, keeps us moving forward, keeps the city growing. Yes, we want to bring your businesses in, but let's give them something to come to, because they do want to invest in us. We have to give our best foot forward.

“You have a code enforcement officer. Yes, we did away with that position. However, we get a lot of calls throughout the week from people questioning about properties, questioning about areas, questioning about what they can do, so it's obvious from the community and the people that there's a need for that position again, so we have to reevaluate that.”

Anzaldua said the city is at a deficit at the no-new-revenue rate of 29.30 cents before they even begin talking about adding anything else to the budget.

“Everybody here understood that. That’s why we agreed we had to move somewhere,” Anzaldua said.

He said going to the voter-approval rate of 30.30 cents only brings in an additional $63,284, but it will cost $111,000 just to take care of the car systems, laptops and body worn cameras for the police department and going up to 31 cents only generates an extra $107,583, which is still not enough to fully cover the police equipment.

“At 32 (cents) brings you $170,000 and that allows you to take care of the police department needs, senior citizens, mental health advisory and summer youth camp, but again, there's still items omitted. At 33 (cents) there's really no change, because some of the things we can shuffle to find it, but it's going to put you almost at a break even, if not back into the negative. At 34 (cents) you begin to find five things we can add in — including the 2.5 merit increase to take care of the employees and still summer youth, still mental health, still senior citizens, and still taking care of police department.”

Anzaldua said going to the maximum proposed tax rate of 35 cents will generate $367,020 in additional tax revenues.

“Now you can take care of the police department, senior citizens, Summer Youth Program, uniforms for all employees, take care of your water trailer, your mental health advisory, your merit increase, the fairway mower, the library and city beautification,” he said.

“Is it a chance? Absolutely. Is it a risk? Better believe it. If you’ve ever been in business, you know everything's a risk. There's not a decision you make that's not a risk the moment you open your door. It's a risk, but you’ve got to have confidence to know that you can sustain that risk, and the team you have in front of you can deliver.”

District 4 Councilmember Harold Strom said the issues are “multi-faced” and more than “just what the City Council deciding just what the city’s going to do.”

“There's other entities that are included in all of this taxation. It's not just us,” Strom said. “You’ve got the ISD, you've got EMS, you've got all these other entities that are also looking at tax increases as well. So, I look at this in the big picture and the effect that it's going to have on everybody, if all these entities are going to increase, and it appears that they're suggesting that they're going to.

“My recommendation and what I feel is fair and reasonable is actually .31 and let me give you why I've come to that conclusion. 30.30 cuts out a lot of different things and one of the things that it actually cuts out is the Summer Youth Program, and for me, that's what people talk about quality of life.

“From the verbal communications that we’ve had face to face with people, they're not particularly in favor of trying to eat the elephant all at once, but more like one bite at a time.”

District 3 Councilmember Lorenzo Hernandez said he has gotten “a bunch of phone calls” and “I guess I have a low-income district, because the majority of the people that come and talk to me, or they call me, or that see me in my office — they can't afford these taxes.”

“I get what we want over here, I get it, but what can we do for the people who put us there?” Hernandez asked. “Are we just going to tell them, ‘Well, we need this. We need all of this.’ Our budget goes up every year no matter what I've seen it — from ’06 to present, it's never stopped going up.

“How we work that money is up to staff, and I'm not saying they're doing a bad job, but somewhere we're spending more money than we're bringing in, and no business can operate like that, and throwing more Money to it doesn't fix the problem,” Hernandez added. “I was good with the 30.30 that staff requested for us or they recommended. I'm willing to do the 31 as well, but I can't see doing the 35 — it's out of my reach.”

District 2 Councilmember Mariah Jordan said she is “actually good with the proposed tax rate” of 35 cents. Meanwhile, District 1 Councilmember Joseph “Poochy” Kridler said his constituents brought up concerns more about what a tax increase would be used to fund rather than the increase itself.

“There's just like the mayor stated about the police safety cameras and the laptops and the body cameras, and just like Councilman Strom said about the Summer Youth Program,” Kridler said. “ I grew up in that program. I was a kid there, I was a coach there, I was a volunteer there. I believe that is a very strong program that helps the youth of Gonzales.

“I wasn't necessarily for the .35. I was kind of in the middle. I could work with the .31 as well. I was actually thinking the .32, but we can work and do the best with what we can do with.”
Strom said he thinks the city would be better served not spending money on the police equipment so it can use more money on other quality of life needs.

“In order to (purchase the police equipment) we have to give up so much else, and I think that it offsets and outweighs,” Strom said. “If I were led to believe that we had such a problem with law enforcement here it would be a different issue, but that's never come before me. It's never been presented as an issue.

“I look at this and I analyze this based on the numbers and the overall needs of the community, what serves the community best, also what my constituents present to me and what they want me to represent.”

City Manager Tim Crow said, “Just to be clear, the body cams and those systems that we are requesting to be replaced are no longer being serviced by Motorola, and the equipment is failing right now and they're at a deficit. My opinion is we need that equipment for those officers for the protection of our

community.”

Anzaldua said he would like, for the record, to see the city go to 34 cents on the tax rate.

“I know it's higher than what's been talked about, but when it comes down to police safety, you're absolutely right,” Anzaldua said. “They may not have a need but you don't know an emergency is going to happen. And when it does, you want to be prepared for that and have the people in the right place and the right equipment on to protect them, protect the community, protect everybody. For us to say that we don't see a need for it is a vague statement, in my opinion, because we're trying to predict the future, and you can't do that. Things happen in a blink of an eye without a moment's notice.

“The other reason (for 34 cents is) it also allows a merit increase. I will stand for the employees at all times, and I'll stand with them. I believe in them. I know what they can do, and I know what they're capable of doing, but we also have to take care of them.”

City Finance Director Laura Zella asked the council for direction and was told by three members they favored a rate of 33 cents (Anzaldua, Kridler and Jordan) while two favored 31 cents (Strom and Hernandez). She was also told to include the police safety items, summer youth program, senior citizens, mental health board, fairway mower, water trailer, city beautification, water trailer, Library books, uniforms and jackets for city employees.

“Just as a note for the general public, that does not include any merit increase, nor would include any other positions being added at this time, public work, director, a code enforcement officer, or anything additional for the council,” Anzaldua said.