ODESSA, Texas — On Tuesday night, Odessa City Council members were busy voting on two hot agenda items on the table.
One big topic of discussion was the city's tax rate. Citizens won't see a raise, and that's all thanks to some new attractions that have been going up across the city, which is also bringing an increase to revenue.
"Yeah, what we did tonight was we passed [...] on top of the tax rate that's exactly the same as this past year," Odessa City Council member Steven Thompson said. "It will create a 5% increase in our revenues, but that's only because of the new construction and increased property values which went up minimally. It's more of the new construction than anything."
City Council also voted on the Odessa Soccer Association. Last month, the city alleged that the association didn't have proper permission to install and work on its storage building at Sherwood Park. But Tuesday, the council and the association came to an agreement.
"We've been trying to accommodate the Soccer Association all we can, and so because of the shortness of time, we decided tonight to agree to let them play at Sherwood [Park] where they've got everything set up till November 11th," Thompson said. "We're just going to charge them 10 percent of their registration fee, which we think is fair because we still have to maintain the fields."