City to present budget to public
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Residents will get their first chance tonight, Thursday, Aug. 23, to comment on a proposed city budget that totals $27,387,056, an increase of nearly 20 percent over last year's budget.

At the same time, the city proposes to lower the Port Aransas property tax rate to 28.5770 cents per $100 valuation from the current 29.7 cents per $100 valuation. That's a decrease of about 3.78 percent.

Because of increased property valuations, the city tax bill for the average home -- $237,377 - will go up $83.52.

The biggest increase by far in the 2007-08 budget comes in the construction fund, which will jump from $873,500 to $7,164,615. That's because of a program to improve city streets and drainage through projects approved by voters in a November bond issue.

Other funds that also will see increases include the general fund (from $7,033,592 to $9,120,044); debt service (from 0 to $236,770 - debt service will be used to for the bonds sold to finance the construction projects); the nature preserve (from $55,208 to $1,326,000); and the beach fund, which will increase from $1,291,155 to $1,882,955.

Picking up part of the slack are the hotel-motel special fund, which drops next year to $315,813 from its current $1,427,644; the airport fund, down from the current $163,570 to $105,835; the harbor fund, now $1,105,178 and dropping to $715,476.

In his briefing on the budget to city council members, City Manager Michael Kovacs said, "While the city does not control (property) appraisals, we are able to adjust our tax rate to provide for services and infrastructure as desired. A misnomer is that the city can cut taxes simply by going below the effective rate. This simplistic argument ignores the true appraisal/tax issue, which is the exportation of funds from the island to the school funding system, and also to county-wide uses at ever increasing levels."

Kovacs explained that if the city reduces taxes to below the effective tax rate, it has only a minimal impact on residents' taxes, while the shift of tax money off Mustang Island continues.

He pointed out that Port Aransas' tax rate is less than half the tax rate of Corpus Christi.

The budget concentrates on police staffing, communications and technology; a city charter-mandated reserve of $750,000; proposed improvements to harbor facilities and boat ramps; and a street and drainage project on Oleander Street which wasn't part of the bond issue, but which was mandated by city council members to be paid from city reserve funds.

Public hearings on the budget and the tax rate are scheduled for 5 p.m. today, Thursday, Aug. 23 and Monday, Aug. 27, in the council chamber. A special council meeting to approve the budget and tax rate is set for 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 4, also in the council chamber.