City of Graham tax, budget public hearings upcoming

The city of Graham has filed their proposed budget and are discussing their ad valorem tax rate for 2021-2022, with two public hearings coming up next month regarding the proposed budget and tax rate. The city began talks regarding the budget in July discussing upcoming projects, departments and needs for the entity.

The public hearings on the 2021-2022 proposed budget and ad valorem tax rate for the city of Graham will be held during a regular city council meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 2, and at a special called council meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 9. Both meetings will be held at the Graham Visitor and Business Center on 608 Elm St.

The final adoption of the budget and ad valorem tax rate for the city will be during a regular city council meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 30, at the Graham Visitor and Business Center. The proposed general fund budget has $6,998,300 in revenues with $7,047,845.55 in expenditures, or a total general fund negative value of $49,545.55. The city is budgeting for an increase in tax revenue of $35,272 from the 2020-2021 annual budget.

City Manager Brandon Anderson presented the tax calculation worksheet provided by the Young Central Appraisal District during a city council meeting Thursday. The No New Tax Rate for the city for 2021-2022 is $0.5676 per $100 valuation, or the amount the city would have to set to generate approximately the same amount of ad valorem taxes as the year prior. This tax rate would levy the city $2,075,359.58 in taxes, or a slight increase over the tax raised from the previous year’s rate of $0.6050 per $100 valuation of $2,073,840.43.

To meet the budget and balance the negative $49,545.55, the city will have to set the tax rate at $0.582 per $100 valuation, according to Anderson. If the city considers a 2% raise for employees, or approximately $69,000, the tax rate will be closer to last year’s rate and be required to be set at $0.601 per $100 valuation. A 3% raise for city employees, or approximately $102,000, would require a rate of $0.61 per $100 valuation. If the city proposes the same rate as last year of $0.605 per $100 valuation, the city would levy $2,212,108.08 in taxes compared with the $2,073,840.43 raised last year with the same rate.

“What I would suggest and what I would like to consider as we move forward with our public hearings is that we consider leaving the tax rate the same, going ahead and funding a 3% raise for employees (and) work that into the budget,” Anderson said. “The general fund may end up having a slight negative balance, but with conservative budgeting, just like we did this past year, I think we can make up that difference.”

Editor’s Note: This is two-part story regarding the budget and tax rate proposed by the city of Graham.

For the rest of the story, see the Aug. 21 edition of The Graham Leader.