The City Council in Bridge City held two public hearings Tuesday night on the 2017-18 budget and the proposed tax rate for next fiscal year. There were no citizens’ comments during the hearing on the budget.
During the hearing on the tax rate though City Manager Jerry Jones had some critical comments for the Orange County Appraisal District concerning their preparing of the tax values for property in Bridge City. First, Jones informed the council that the appraisal district had submitted the incorrect tax value numbers to the city staff three times which caused Bridge City to need to re-publish the figures.
The city staff explained that values listed were correct, but calculations by the district following appeals from property owners were in error resulting in the numbers not being valid. Jones lamented, “I certainly don’t feel like it would be a bad move to write them a letter and request they take care of this since it was their problem in the beginning, but is that going to happen, probably not.”
Because the previous numbers submitted were incorrect when published Bridge City will have to publish them again. Publishing the tax figures will cost Bridge City another $1500. The City Council will vote at its September 19 meeting to give final approval to the budget and the tax rate of 52 cents per 100 dollars value for next year.
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