***** It's Friday, here's the Obligatory Weather*****
Looks like Fall is sort of here. We've had some great rain over the last couple of weeks and more possible in the near future. For those that like the numbers, so far in September we've had 4.55 inches of rain, a high temperature of 96.3 and a low temperature of 55.6. Forecast is 85 for today and drops for the rest of the week to the 70's. Chance of rain Sunday through Wednesday. Enjoy the Central Texas Fall!
*****Save Lakeway PAC*****
You may have heard about the PAC that all the living previous mayors have formed. We are currently focusing on the Charter Amendments that will be on the ballot in November. Here is a link to the webpage that explains the issue. This link will tell you about the PAC and this link will take you to a "contact" page if you agree with our mission and want to help. We are all concerned with the way Lakeway seems to be drifting and in the PAC's opinion some issues we think need to be addressed! We all love our community and want to preserve Lakeway for future generations. Thank you for you interest, please spread the word!
If you have questions, the contact page has email addresses for all the members and any would be happy to talk about it and answer questions.
*****City Budget*****
Monday council will have another "Budget Hearing". Let's talk a little about the City Budget. In the "View" the Mayor said people don't care which pot the money goes in. I disagree. There are two major pots. One is M&O (Maintenance and Operations) and the other is Debt. Council controls the M&O rate and citizens control the Debt rate. Citizens vote on bonds and Bond Debt. Council controls the M&O.
This year the council wants to increase the M&O rate, first 3.5% and now they have dropped that to 2%. This is still an increase. To put that into perspective, the M&O rate has pretty much gone down for many years to adjust for the increase in property values. That has not happened for the last 2 years, effectively giving you a tax increase.
Every year the city gets a raise, period. It comes from several sources, property values go up (not so much this year), increased tax base (more homes and commercial property come on the tax role) and Sales Tax increases.
The Debt rate went up three time in the 9 previous years to this administration. It was because of bonds. Bond to purchase of property on Bee Creek Rd for the sports park, bond to improve Flintrock Road and the bond to build the police station. Tax rate went up and then back down - some debt was paid off and council also reduced the M&O rate to reduce the tax rate.
If taxes are going up, what has improved, what did you get for the extra money? New roads, parks, better code enforcement? Nope. Council wants to hire new staff - Planner, Emergency Services Coordinator and Grant Writer for a few. They also are freezing some existing police positions (possibly raises) and are not replacing vehicles and are cutting back on committee expenses. Some of these will bite the city down the road for sure. Increasing taxes in the middle of a pandemic when many are struggling seems inconsistent. Seems there is a fiscal policy issue.
Let your elected officials know how you feel - here is a link to the page with their email addresses. If you don't care about the higher taxes, that's your choice to make.
*****More City Stuff*****
Did you know the City and Police phones were down last week? Yep, two different days from what I can tell. Police sent it out on Facebook, crickets from the city. AT&T took a hit, evidently Austin Electric put a new pole through a cable. That got fixed in about a day, I'm not sure what happened the second time. Seems like they're up and running now.
There's a rumor that the Council Meeting will be open to the public Monday. No information from the city, Gov. Abbott is letting businesses to open to 75% capacity Monday so we'll see. I'm sure there will be restrictions if it comes about.
On the last blog, I mentioned there were no Executive Sessions on the agenda. Never fear, as soon as the meeting was called to order, a council member called for an Executive Session to talk about budget items? There was no data given. I'll tell you, this council has had more Executive Sessions than the last 5 mayors administrations put together. Let that sink in.
*****Church Construction*****
The sanctuary is really moving along!
First, a link to a 360𝆩 Panorama of the interior - you can use a mouse or your finger on a phone to look all around. It's going to be GREAT!
And some pictures.
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