*****Weather Update*****
Fall is here and hasn't the rain been wonderful! Lake Travis is getting a little drink too. Looks like it's up to 662.34. We've had 6.38 inches of rain in September by my gauge. Our high temperature Wednesday was 75.2° - supposed to get up to 83° today and some sunshine. Slight chance of rain through Monday. Enjoy the Central Texas Fall!
*****City Stuff*****
I listened to most of the Council meeting Monday evening. After much discussion, council settled on the NNR (No New Revenue) rate and are saying they are not increasing the taxes. Let me translate. The tax rate is going up, not much but an increase. Last year the tax RATE was .1645 per $100 evaluation, the new budget is proposing .1653 per $100 evaluation - that is a rate increase. The NNR rate is calculated by removing new properties added in the past year and calculating the rate on the remaining values. So, if you protested your taxes and got a reduction, you may stay the same or get a slight reduction - if you are not in that group, you get a tax increase! The city still gets additional monies from the properties added - they just don't use it in the calculations.
What are you getting? Apparently the Planner, Grant Writer, Emergency Management Coordinator and a Fleet Maintenance Coordinator - and now they threw in a full time IT person.
The council hired a consultant to do a salary study (big $) and now council is overriding that recommendation and will not pay raises? But, they are funding 5 new positions. Why not delete the new positions, buy the vehicles they need, pay the raises and lower the tax rate for everyone?
One more thing of interest. Per their data published in the council packet, they were $521,561 under budget on revenues - that's bad but not too bad. Astonishingly, they were $1,347,514 under budget on expenses - really good! That means, $825,953 carried over from last year. And of course the pesky issue of the money from the sale of the property to the MUD, about $450,000 - not a done deal, but couldn't they use that in planning? And of course, the city reserves are at 35% with a target of 30%. Money's not earning ANY interest and that's another few hundred thousand dollars in reserve.
And one last thing. Councilmember Mastrangelo decided to ARGUE with a resident in the middle of his allotted 3 minutes to speak. Very unprofessional and should not happen. The councilmember gets all the time he wants to talk.
Get involved, fact check what I'm saying and if you agree, let council know. Pressure from the residents has had a big effect so far - here's a link to the page with contact information for mayor and council if you wish to contact them.
*****Save Lakeway PAC*****
We are up and running and have some signs up now. Thanks to the involved citizens for their generous support! We know it's an uphill battle but driving citizen involvement is always a good thing.
The 5 previous Mayors feel strongly that the city has lost it's compass and is moving in a direction away from what the founders had envisioned. We feel the November election is important for our conservative, low tax future. Remember, council has effectively raised your taxes the last two years and is raising the rate this year.
If you would like to see the issues, here is a link to the explanation. Remember, some of the charter propositions are fine, BUT if any pass it is two years before it can be corrected - it none pass, we can make another run at it right away.
The three at issue -
- Prop B - council overrode the recommendations of the committee to stay with 3 year terms to return to 2 year terms. Why?
- Council changed the recommendation to make it easier to encumber the city with a CO - do you want council to make the decision to spend Millions of Dollars without a bond? Why?
- Changing the term limits was not even on the list nor discussed in the council meeting that I remember. But someone decided to do it and make significant changes. Why?
Early voting will be held at the Activity Center. Here is a link to dates and hours. If you are interested in another location, here is a link to all locations in Travis County.
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Don't procrastinate, council will vote on the budget at the Special Virtual meeting Monday, September 28. Guess they didn't like opening the meeting to the public.....
That's all for today. Thanks for letting me rant about some of my feelings, it will be over soon....
More pictures of the inside of the church soon, it is really looking good! Nice weather this weekend, get out and enjoy it!
If you would like to be added to my email list, please send a note to lakeway@bain.us and I'll get you added.
Joe Bain
lakeway@bain.us
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