Jboro council adopts budget, tax rate

With a six cent drop in tax rate due to less debt, Jacksboro city officials adopted both the Fiscal Year 2020-21 tax rate and budget as part of the Aug. 24 regular meeting.

The tax rate will drop from $1.20 to $1.14 per $100 valuation which will bring in $144,356 more than last year. City Manager Mike Smith said the city is in a unique position of retiring $200,000 in debt.

“As debt goes down, the monies that were going to be used for debt can actually go into the maintenance and operation or general fund budget,” Smith explained.

Smith explained the de minimis rate which is the unit’s no new revenue M and O rate plus The rate that, when applied to the tax unit’s total value will impose an amount of taxes equal to $500,000 and the current debt (I-S) rate. The new M-O rate is $94.1 cents with I-S going at 20 cents.

Previously, entities could raise rates up to 8 percent before being subject to a rollback election. In today’s rollback, or voter approved rate, any more than a 3.5-percent increase will trigger an automatic election.

On the budget, the city is a four percent decrease in spending expecting a 3.9 percent less revenue and expenditure. In the city’s utility fund, a 19-percent cut in revenue is expected with a 2.59 cut in expenditures also cut.

In other news, fees for residential renting of a dumpster will go up. Weekday rental of a dumpster will go up from $100 to $150 with weekend rental rising from $200 to $300. Smith said the dumpsters were constantly being used and starting to get into a state of disrepair. The increased rates will allow the dumpsters to remain nice and residents to still be able to afford to clean up their residence, which was one of the reasons to get the dumpsters to begin with.