MIDLAND, Texas — The City of Midland is giving folks a break by lowering its tax rate for the second straight year.
City council made it official on Tuesday and also approved a $454 million budget for the new fiscal year.
More development means some relief to the wallets of Midlanders.
“There has been some growth in our property valuations, as well as some additional properties that have been added to our city limits, and so the revenue associated with that tax rate has grown a little bit...that’s allowed us to be able to lower our tax rate incrementally and give a little bit of that back to the community," said Lori Blong, mayor of Midland.
A months-long process is now in the books.
“We’re comfortable with this budget because we believe it is conservative," Mayor Blong said.
The city said it made some cuts this year in order to project a total of $454 million that it believes its revenue sources can bring in.
“It is covering our needs first and then a few of our wants, but it also allows us to plan for the future as we look for future growth and expansion of Midland and all the projects that we have coming," Mayor Blong said. "The city staff and the council have done a lot of work to bring us to this place and we’re proud of that today.”
The city's strategic plan outlines areas of focus, which helps in the process.
“One of those big focuses is on a safe and secure city, and so that makes sure that our fire and our police are taken care of," said Christy Weakland, director of finance for the City of Midland. "As the city grows, we need to make sure that those departments are able to grow as well.”
$454 million is about a $30 million increase from the last fiscal year, with $176 million of that in the general fund.
“That includes personnel cost, it includes our road maintenance budget and other things...the general fund budget has grown incrementally over most of the recent years just because [of] the growth of Midland and the aging infrastructure that we have," Mayor Blong said. "And so, as we’re caring for aging infrastructure in older parts of Midland [and] we’re expanding infrastructure into new areas, we see those associated costs come to the City of Midland.”
The general fund grew about $11 million this fiscal year as the Tall City continues reaching new heights.