ODESSA, Texas — City officials within the City of Odessa met for a special city council meeting on Wednesday to hold a public hearing over a tax increase for fiscal year 2024-2025.
However, city officials said the only reason it is listed as a tax increase is because of necessary legal language.
According to Mayor Javier Joven, property values and revenue within the city went up. That, alongside there being more property to be evaluated and assessed, are required to be called a tax increase.
Mayor Joven stressed that the taxes would, in fact, be decreasing.
“Tax decrease. It's an oxymoron, because the tax code actually says, because what we are adopting, there are three different type of categories," Mayor Joven said. "Because there is more revenue coming in because of an increased inventory. There is more property to be assessed and value. There is more value, so the valuations of the city went up."
This year's tax rate of 46 cents per $100 value was down from 48 cents per $100 value.
"For every $100 evaluation of your home, you take your overall value of your home, and every $100 is 46 cents, and that's how you calculate the city tax rate,” Mayor Joven said.
Some rates will be jumping up a little bit.
Water and sewer rates will be jumping up by 3.0% while solid waste rates will be going up 3.5%, or about $1.30.
Mayor Joven said the increases reflect on rising inflation and operation costs, but it will also help build new infrastructure and a new fleet of solid waste vehicles.
However, these new rates will not be affecting everyone in the city of Odessa.
"Looking at all three of those rates with inflation costs here locally, we had our finance team take a look at it with our city manager and our deputy city manager, and we looked hard at the numbers," City Councilwoman at-large Denise Swanner said. "What that will mean is if you're 65 and older or you have a disability, there will not be a tax increase on the sewer rate, water rate and the solid waste rate.”
The rates were about to be higher, but some management of the budget kept the increases low.
“The initial rate increase for the city for the water and the sewer in the trash was going to be 6%," District 1 City Councilman Mark Matta said. "Because of our city management and the staff - who have been very fiscally conservative - we've been able to save money by doing the zero based budget. Just by cutting costs around all the departments, we were able to lower that increase down to 3%.”
The city plans on using the extra revenue they have gained for additional expansion within Odessa along with improvements for police, fire department, roads, water and sewer systems.
These new rates are set to kick in on Oct. 1. Odessa City Council will meet and take a final vote on the tax levies on Tuesday, Sept. 24.