♦ Council decides on “no-new-revenue”

By Melinda L. Lucas

Members of the Albany city council met briefly on Tuesday morning to propose a tax rate, discussing a couple of options but agreeing quickly that they did not want to “put any more burden” on local taxpayers than necessary.

City manager Billy Holson stated that he was “comfortable” working with what is now termed the “no-new-revenue’ (NNR) tax rate, previously known as the effective tax rate.

The NNR is based on a rate that would produce the same amount of taxes if applied to the same properties taxed the previous year.

In the City of Albany’s case, that rate is actually lower than the 2019 tax rate of 68.66 cents per $100 valuation because of higher values.

The proposed tax rate of 67.55 cents is calculated to generate $478,104, not counting any new properties added to the tax roll this year.

Holson went through tax rate information provided by the Shackelford County appraisal office, stating that he could make the budget work with the expected NNR revenue, even though there will probably not be a lot spent on capital improvements such as street repair.

He commented that water rates  might have to be raised if more revenue is needed.

“My feeling is that Albany citizens have a choice about how much water they use, so they have some control over their water bills,” said Holson. “They don’t have control over their property values or taxes.”

No public hearing will be required since the city plans to adopt the NNR rate.

The 67.55-cent proposed rate was approved on a motion by Lester Galbreath, seconded by Austin Sherwood. It is expected to be adopted at the council’s Sept. 14 meeting.