Property owners in the city of Orange are facing a tax rate increase because damage from Tropical Storm Harvey dropped property values $80.16 million.
The same problem is facing other property-taxing entities in Orange County.
The city’s effective tax rate for the 2018-19 budget year is 5.2 cents per $100 valuation more than the current rate. The effective rate is the rate the city will need to charge to receive the same amount of property tax income as the previous year.
The current rate is 71.774 cents per $100 valuation and the new effective tax rate is 79.937 cents per $100.
City Manager Dr. Shawn Oubre presented the proposed budget to the City Council Monday morning. The council will have its first budget workshop at 9 a.m. Tuesday to decide whether to cut services or other items to get a lower tax rate.
The proposed budget has no employee layoffs and includes a 2 percent cost of living pay increase for all city employees. Oubre in his preface to the budget said firefighters and police officers with collective bargaining contracts have the 2 percent increase in their contracts.
The new budget year starts October 1 and the council will hold a public hearing on the final proposal plus hold two separate votes.
The Tuesday morning budget workshop will be in the Danny Gray Room at the Orange Police Department. A second workshop will be Thursday at 2 p.m in the Danny Gray Room. The council may schedule more workshops if needed. The workshops are open to the public, but do not have a scheduled time for public comments.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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