[0:33] I see

[2:41] this budget process will

[2:46] give us each wisdom and direction as we as we oversee this thing. We will this now. We ask it, Jesus.

[3:28] We're going to go into the public hearing on the proposed budget for the October 1st, 2026

[3:35] to September 30, 2027 fiscal year, kind

[3:42] of going to the open, I guess we need to public

[3:48] speakers.

[3:49] Do we have anybody wanting to speak?

[3:55] Okay.

[4:01] I just want to answer questions, so I guess y'all saw in your packet that you had a copy of the proposed budget that we talked about at the last meeting, that's what's posted online, I updated another copy that really just updated the year-to-date in each category, because we're obviously watching that daily.

[4:21] You can see by the notes I made that I had to make some adjustments on a few lines.

[4:27] I've already made those adjustments mainly in fuel and utilities, a couple things in there.

[4:34] And I just kind of wanted to point out, again, I like to low-ball revenues so that at the

[4:41] end of the year, we might have a little extra money.

[4:42] And the reason why, as an example, these are things that were not budgeted this year that

[4:49] we that we have to do. The lift station on East Maine two of the three pumps need

[4:57] work and that's around $30,000.

[5:01] The ground pump that we talked about at the

[5:04] last meeting that's they did evaluate that pump and we're not going to have to buy

[5:07] new $40,000 when it is going to be about 18,000 to fix it. Pump controls, this is what

[5:12] we talked about at the wastewater plant to regulate the battery and lower the

[5:15] sludge hauling costs, and we're matching a grant, $25,000 grant for some fire gear.

[5:21] So these things were not budgeted, but were able to do them just because we kind of

[5:27] watched it throughout the year.

[5:28] So those costs have not yet reflected in the year to date on the sheet you have, but they

[5:33] will fit.

[5:35] And I'd like to get as much of it done as I can this year because I know it'll fit.

[5:39] And I don't know 13 months from now what's going to fit.

[5:42] that so we're trying to get this stuff out of the way

[5:44] and it's got to happen.

[5:47] So really just I would answer any questions you had

[5:50] about this just because this is on the record.

[5:55] I do kind of want to say again that the overall,

[6:00] this was prepared with the same overall tax rate

[6:02] as last year.

[6:03] The overall tax rate is not increasing.

[6:07] We are shifting three cents of it from the debt service

[6:10] to the maintenance and operations that we can use that money for daily operations.

[6:15] And we will, because of the growth in sales tax, we can pay more of our debt with sales

[6:18] tax and not off people's property tax, and we're just trying to shift that a little bit

[6:24] at a time so that at the end of the day, we're not property taxing people for debt as little

[6:31] as possible.

[6:33] But other than those proportions, the overall tax rate did not increase.

[6:38] place, which is a little rare, I think, from looking at some surrounding entities this

[6:44] year, but our rate is not.

[6:49] But other than that, any questions, I would

[6:57] not

[7:13] everybody at once, just one at a time

[7:16] with your questions.

[7:20] There's really not a lot to talk about.

[7:21] Just so you do understand, at the end of this hearing, we are required by law to take an

[7:25] action on the budget.

[7:26] You have the option to approve this budget and then at the next meeting we'll do the rates you can't do that the same, but

[7:34] We at the very least the action has to be somebody has to make a motion

[7:38] We vote to take action on the budget at the next meeting. We just have to take some type of action at the end of this hearing

[7:45] So this meeting we would be taking care of the I'm sorry

[7:51] Repeat that again. So why why one has to be done at one meeting versus the other the state

[7:57] The tax code does not allow you to adopt your tax rate the same day as your budget hearing.

[8:03] There has to be at least on a different date.

[8:06] You have to take some action on this budget today.

[8:10] The action can simply be, I make a motion, we take action on the budget at our next meeting

[8:15] on September 24th.

[8:16] That's typically what we do and then at that next meeting is when we have the three votes,

[8:20] the budget, the tax rate and then ratifying that rate is here.

[8:24] We just can't do all three of them on the same date as the budget hearing.

[8:29] I know you might see on the news a lot of entities are already past this stage and that's fine.

[8:34] You know, we didn't actually even get our numbers for insurance until after our last meeting.

[8:39] So we tried to do it earlier, we just didn't have the information to do it.

[8:44] The current, but insurance rates premiums are in this?

[8:49] Yes, sir. Yes, or they are.

[8:51] Okay.

[8:52] And they were below the number I had put in as an estimate.

[8:56] Okay.

[8:56] So.

[8:58] Any questions that we have on the overall budget?

[9:01] You want them to come out here or in the council meeting?

[9:05] You can ask them here and I can make those changes and then when we approve the budget,

[9:12] actually approve it at the next meeting, those changes will be in there.

[9:15] I don't know that I have anything suggested change.

[9:17] I just, for clarification, I just had a couple.

[9:19] That that's absolutely fun. So now's when you'd like to do that. Yes, sir. Okay.

[9:26] Sales tax revenue. I was just curious is

[9:30] It went up significantly from from last years. Now is that was that not but

[9:41] Obviously the year to the year to date on your sales tax does not have set timber included so there's there's a around a hundred thousand short

[9:49] there will not be sales tax the year-to-date revenue on water and the year-to-date

[9:54] revenue on garbage will not those come in on the 28th like like towards the

[9:58] end of the month so we will get them this fiscal year but they are not

[10:01] reflected in our ledger yet and typically

[10:11] what I try to do on the sales tax is

[10:13] I try to use the last year's number I know it's going to grow a little bit but

[10:17] instead of forecasting a 2% or 4% growth and then something happening I would

[10:22] rather use last year's number and then have that growth to address other needs.

[10:27] Well, I picked out of here how you do your revenue budgeting and your expense budgeting

[10:32] and I want to comment on on your practice and how you did it.

[10:37] I did have a question on admin, there was a number of expenses that went up and then under

[10:53] So I do not take a vehicle allowance and to balance this last year's budget, we used that allocation somewhere else.

[11:02] But if possible, I think it needs to stay earmarked for in the future.

[11:06] That way, if something changes in the future, you don't have to find it and come up with that number.

[11:11] It's just there. I mean it's not there's no intention to use it. I'm certainly not gonna gonna take it

[11:17] But if you know if anything ever were to change you need to have that available to utilize to for that position

[11:24] down on contracting inspections and permitting I

[11:31] Think the way I understand that that's a net in and out right we just pass on what permitting

[11:37] Yes, or so I have we have three things and I hate that this is behind y'all

[11:42] But throughout the year, we have three things that are basically a pass-through.

[11:46] We have our fines and fees are offset by state of Texas court costs.

[11:51] Now those fines and fees are not just citations and tickets.

[11:54] It also includes meter turn-offs or emergency late fees, things like that.

[11:59] But overall, for example, any type of citation or anything

[12:04] the state gets around 60% of that.

[12:07] So, I keep up throughout the year, I kind of keep up with a percentage of how much that is true revenue versus how much it goes on.

[12:15] So, court costs, fines and fees offset, obviously garbage income and garbage expense offsets.

[12:21] You know, last year we absorbed the increase from the rip trash company because just trying to give our citizens a little break.

[12:28] And then permit fees and contract permitting those offsets.

[12:32] There's a little bit on there because we have the software we issue the permits John goes and coordinates all that

[12:39] But for the most part that's the fees that we get charged for Veritas coming and doing those inspections and plan reviews

[12:46] Those are the three main ones that pass through the ambulance membership and ambulance expenses is it's a direct

[12:52] It's just turned around handed to them. So there's no percentage there and

[13:00] in those numbers

[13:02] It's kind of a projection as long as the ratio

[13:06] is close is the main thing you know I don't want to say that we're we're going to collect

[13:11] and keep 90% of fines and fees because that's not going to happen as long as I know that that

[13:17] ratio how much comes in how much is going out we're we're pretty safe I understand what you're saying

[13:23] Jeff then I got a further question then on beyond page two it's under department 10 administration

[13:30] and it's down under the contract inspection and the permitting.

[13:35] It looks like last year we had a total activity of 23,000 plus an issue of predicting 15.

[13:43] So last year we knew that like a commercial occupancy that we know is coming in, they're

[13:50] going to have commercial meters, they're going to have some commercial plan review.

[13:53] We just kind of know what's come in versus what's going on.

[13:56] And there could be, you know, we know that like meter taps, which we're passing that

[14:04] into the revenue, their savings fund, but when this thing on 16 gets to roll in, there's

[14:10] 52 water taps coming, you know.

[14:13] So I try to project that, but again, as long as those two are the ratio between the permitting

[14:19] and the expense is close.

[14:22] And I track that, looks it over here.

[14:24] So, you know, we want to keep that, they're going to do the 52 one at a time though.

[14:30] Well, they're going to go through and they've already done a lot of them, but that's, I'm

[14:34] just saying that's something like I knew that McDonald's was coming, and there's going

[14:38] to be a lot of permitting and plan review because there's a lot of plan review on something

[14:42] like that between our engineers, their engineers and things like that, but you know, homes

[14:45] and things, it's not, it's not as significant.

[14:49] As long as I know that, you know, I can't say we're going to make $20,000 on plan review and only have to spend $1,000, I know that's not right, that's just making up a number.

[15:00] So I'm trying to keep these percentages, you know, we're up close.

[15:16] This will show up in the amendment in the actual meeting, but you might notice in this budget, just so I can explain it and say it kind of on the record. So, EDC payroll is in our payroll system. Now, the EDC out of their budget pays that payroll. But what happens is, or what has been happening is we issue that check.

[15:41] and in their reimbursement goes directly into the payroll fund, which is not the general

[15:46] fund. It's 900. It's not a 100 fund. So there is no expense to us in there. But what

[15:52] happens when you're looking at this budget, when the auditor looks at this budget, says

[15:55] how much money did you spend? That amount of money is reflected that it's being spent

[16:03] with no revenue numbers stuck in here. So this next year, the numbers for that are in

[16:11] here and they are reflected in the revenue line and the EDC reimbursement that line has

[16:16] been adjusted to reflect those expenses. But for this year, the adjustment we're making

[16:21] is to adjust and show that so that the audit that they're fixing to do next month as we

[16:27] close out will show because the general fund spends more than it makes. The water fund has

[16:32] to make that up. Well, that's that much more the water funds having to give to make it up

[16:37] So we can we can keep more water fund in the water fund it it's there's no

[16:41] Difference to expense or income. It's just a clear documentation of where that money is going coming from

[16:48] So that's why those numbers in the 199 have never had a number in there before but this time there's a budgeted number there

[16:54] For tracking this

[17:02] one is budget related, but it's just ignorance on my part

[17:06] We show tower rent

[17:08] Expenses over water and waste water

[17:10] Do we rent any space for our towers?

[17:16] They do. They rent it to some Wi-Fi companies and phone and stuff like that.

[17:21] There's antennas on those towers.

[17:23] They rent that. Yes, sir.

[17:24] But does it show revenue in our?

[17:27] Yes, sir. It should be it's 100.

[17:31] Let me see up there.

[17:32] The tower rate goes in the 500.

[17:33] Oh, that's right because it's on the water towers.

[17:36] Yeah, it's in the 500 revenue.

[17:38] There will be a 500 and then a five digit number.

[17:43] It is 540-205, but it's because they're on the water tower, so they're the one, they're

[17:52] interested.

[17:53] I didn't see that.

[17:55] I saw this one here, I thought, surely we're making some money on tower rental space.

[18:06] We're going to have to watch credit card fees that, you know, a couple years ago, credit

[18:10] credit card fees, eight us up to the tune of nearly $50,000 because we were paying for

[18:15] everybody's miles and points and cash back and everything.

[18:20] And Theresa and Kevin and everybody got that fixed.

[18:23] Well now just a couple of months ago all the credit card companies went up on their fees again.

[18:27] So that has been reflected the last couple months.

[18:30] So instead of the 3% they've gone up to 4.

[18:34] So we're going to have to kind of watch that.

[18:35] that I adjusted those numbers for next year, but we're going to have to kind of watch

[18:40] that that doesn't sneak back up on us again, where we're eating all those fees.

[18:44] We

[18:47] went over this year because unbudgeted manholes, which you called out,

[18:54] are we caught up or not expecting any more than this coming year?

[18:59] We're not expecting any more now, I didn't expect those three in all honesty.

[19:04] You know, one of them was, well, one of them was planned and one of them was a sinkhole formed, but again, there's a number in there to, in part of that number for water repair and wastewater repair includes street material, so that we're not using up our street material on repairs, they pay for their own street material, it's part of that number, but that, again, that's why I don't, you know, I don't, I try to, I know it seems like a big,

[19:33] number but I budget low on the revenue for like water sales and waste water

[19:37] collection service because I know we're gonna have something and if I if I put

[19:42] that number in here we're gonna want to spend it so I just I don't want to

[19:47] spend it do we have to yeah

[19:53] I mean it's an open hearing anybody that has any

[19:56] questions and comments yeah from the audience we'd like to speak on the budget

[20:00] you're welcome to speak we

[20:05] are in a public hearing so we want to make sure that

[20:10] we give you guys the opportunity to speak

[20:17] no that's yeah that's

[20:19] literally any that's all my questions and

[20:26] again I don't mind the questions you

[20:29] need to challenge me it's make sure we're all looking at it so is there anybody

[20:35] else so I believe we need to make a motion to come out of the public

[20:40] carrying so that we can move into the action item. So do I hear a motion?

[20:45] I make a motion that we've come out of public hearing.

[20:47] All right here is second. Second. All in favor?

[20:52] Hi. So we're coming out of that public hearing at 618.

[20:57] Now we're going into action items which is discussion, consideration of

[21:03] on the adoption of the October 1st, 2026, September 30th, 2027, fiscal year, proposed budget.

[21:14] So do I hear a motion on any of that?

[21:16] So moved.

[21:18] I'll second ten.

[21:21] Are you approving it or are you taking action at the next?

[21:26] Can we approve it right now?

[21:27] Now, you can, I would just say that, you know, it will be an action item at the next meeting, and if you, you would still have the opportunity to make a change up until the time you make that motion at the meeting, but if you do it now, it's set.

[21:42] Yeah, I'm confident in it, but I'm just saying it's set.

[21:44] I think we need the motion needs to be to review my motion to push that process to the next monthly meeting.

[21:56] Do I hear a second all in favor okay so do I hear I guess a motion to I

[22:07] adjourn the public hearing and yeah I make a motion to adjourn this meeting all in

[22:13] favor I mean second all in favor all right no nice all right so then we'll start

[22:26] You

Budget Workshop for FY2026-2027 Proposed Budget

Transcript