Plano City Council approves small tax hike

by Bill Baumbach of The Collin County Observer

After listening to comments from about a dozen citizens on both sides of the issue, the Plano City Council this evening approved a small, 1.5 cent (3%) property tax hike. A typical Plano property owner will see a $30/year rise in city taxes as the result of today's vote. The increase is only the city's second property tax rate hike since 1990.

The new rate will be 48.86 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

The vote to approve the tax increase was 6-2, with Lissa Smith and Mabrie Jackson dissenting.

Former Mayor Pat Evans was among the citizens addressing the council in favor of the rate hike. Ms. Evans told the council that they needed to, "use vision and think long-term" to move the city to a "strong future." Plano HOA Vice-President Robert Miller reminded the council that, "without taxes, you can't have city services."

Other proponents of the rate increase spoke of the need to maintain city services in order to keep the "quality of life" Plano citizens have come to expect and like.

One opponent of the tax increase warned council members that "government is out of control," another stated that "When people are hurting, they cut back," and that "people are not ATM machines." These taxpayers urged deeper cuts, especially in employee wages.

In a separate 5-3 vote, the council approved the 2009-2010 Budget. Voting "no" were Lissa Smith, Mabrie Jackson, and Ben Harris. The vote to approve a budget came before the tax rate vote. Passage of the budget with its predicted $4 million dollar shortfall, necessitated the tax increase.

The $405.5 million budget represents a decrease of $2.3 million (0.55%) from the revised 2008-2009 city budget.

In his remarks to the council, City Manager Tom Muehlenbeck emphasized that the budget was not a static document, but would be constantly reviewed as situations changed. He pointed out as an example the recent news of a slide in sales tax revenues.

The Plano City tax increase is the latest in a series of small local government tax hikes caused by declining property values and economic malaise.

The Frisco ISD last night also approved a tax increase of two cents, and the Plano ISD and McKinney ISD had already bumped up their tax rates for next year. Lovejoy ISD citizens are presently voting on a Tax Rate Ratification proposal.