Gonzales to hold public hearing on budget, tax rate Thursday

Gonzales residents will have the opportunity to comment on the city’s proposed $28.8 million budget for fiscal year 2023 and a proposed tax rate of $0.3117 per $100 valuation during a 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1 public hearing at City Hall, 820 N. Saint Joseph St.

The proposed tax rate is 1.35 cents, or 4.15 percent, less than last year’s tax rate of $0.3252, but is 0.69 cents above the no-new-revenue rate of $0.3048 per $100 valuation. The no-new-revenue rate is the tax rate that will raise the same amount of property tax revenue from the same properties taxed both last year and this year.

Instead, the city is looking to adopt what is called the voter-approval rate, or the highest tax rate the city may adopt without holding an election to seek voter approval of the rate.

The no-new-revenue rate decreased for the city of Gonzales because the city had an increase of nearly $37.5 million, or nearly 7.1 percent, above last year’s net taxable value.

As a result, the average homestead taxable value increased from $127,106 last year to $139,900 this year, an increase of $12,794 or 10.07 percent. With the proposed tax rate, the average homestead tax will go up from $413.35 last year to $436.07 this year, an increase of $22.72, or 5.5 percent.

The total tax levy on all properties is expected to increase from $1,724,334 collected in 2021 to $1,766,368 to be collected this year, a difference of $42,034, or 2.44 percent. Of that, $11,873 is tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll.

Budget

The city’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2023 calls for more than $9.91 million in general fund expenditures (including expenses for JB Wells Expo Center), as well as more than $11.1 million in electric fund expenses, nearly $2.29 million in water fund expenses, nearly $1.65 million in wastewater fund expenses and just under $1.57 million in economic development funds expenses.

Other expenditures include $828,253 in solid waste expenses, $815,613 in debt service, $497,026 in tourism fund expenses, $52,200 in library fund expenses, $20,500 in forfeiture fund expenses, $17,500 in municipal court expenses and $4,000 in memorial museum expenses.

The city is expected to collect a combined nearly $30 million in revenues, a difference of $165,210 that will go to the city’s fund balance, which is expected to be a little over $2.8 million by the end of the fiscal year.

City property values increase

The City of Gonzales shows a total market value of nearly $802 million, which includes land value of more than $87.8 million, improvement value of more than $481.3 million, personal property value of just under $35 million and mineral market value of more than $197.8 million. With a productivity loss of nearly $8.66 million, that drops the total market taxable value to more than $793.1 million.

The city had more than $12.9 million in value under protest and with homestead exemptions and losses at just under $160.4 million, that drops the total appraised value to $632.8 million. Subtract some $2.8 million in disabled veteran exemptions, and the net taxable value for the city is just under $630 million.

When protested value and tax ceilings (taxes frozen for those 65 and older) are taken into account, that drops the total adjusted taxable value to just under $566.7 million. That is an increase of nearly $37.5 million, or nearly 7.1 percent, above last year’s net taxable value of more than $529.2 million.

The city added more than $3.8 million in new improvement taxable value for 2022.