City hears public concerns during town hall meeting

Members of the community made their voices heard during a town hall meeting this week hosted by the city of Graham, with a number of concerns and suggestions raised by residents.

The city hosted the town hall meeting Tuesday, Aug. 26 so that members of the public could get a back-and-forth dialogue with city staff and the Graham City Council, something not permitted during the public comment section of a regular city council meeting.

City Manager Eric Garretty kicked off the meeting with topics of discussion such as streets, water and sewer rates, housing, property tax rates, garbage collection and more.

The proposed property tax increase was a main discussion item during the meeting with members of the public. The city is proposing a tax rate of $0.69 per $100 valuation, an increase of $0.035 from the current property tax rate of $0.655 per $100 valuation. 

Resident Carol Willis said that of the over 8,800 residents that make up the population of Graham, only a portion of those pay property taxes. While she said what the city is able to do with its small population is a feat, she added those who pay are also struggling.

“It is hard when you are on a fixed income,” Willis said. “…I was in an insurance agency today and this lady was in there trying their best to get her insurance on her car down. She’s on a very fixed income, and it’s like everything else, it’s going up. Everything goes up, except where you go to get your money, because you don’t have any more.”

Willis said the five priorities the city should focus on are water, sewer, police, fire and streets. 

“I think there are some ways we could cut to take care of the five priorities we’ve got to have,” she said. “...We only have so many people. And whether we like it or not, the vast majority of these people that we’re coming to are on fixed income. It’s not their fault they’ve lived this long.”

Willis suggested taking a portion of the money allocated from collected sales taxes for the Graham Economic Improvement Corporation (GEIC) to use for the city’s general fund. 

Sales tax within the city is at 8.25%, with the state taking 6.25%, Young County taking 0.5%, the city taking 1% and the GEIC taking 0.5%. The city manager said changing how much is allocated via an election could happen and open other opportunities.

“They have a thing called a street sales tax, where you could dedicate 0.25% of all the sales taxes collected and that goes only to street maintenance,” Garretty said. “If that’s something that you’re interested in, let your council members know about it via email, and in future council meetings. We can certainly discuss that.”

The city manager said the tradeoff would be reducing the amount used for economic development efforts by the GEIC for housing as well as for business improvement and expansion.

“It helps mitigate the need to continue to go up on property taxes when we get more houses built in this community and so the GEIC is playing a very important role,” Mayor Alex Heartfield said. “I don’t know that defunding the GEIC is a good idea because of that. I think certainly it’s worth the exercise to see if we want to continue to allow them to take as much as they do, or if there’s a better use of those funds.” 

Little said the growth in the town has remained stagnant since he moved to the city in the 1980s.

“Let’s talk about what we’ve lost. I go back to two primary things that we lost when I moved here, and it was GMI and Hexel,” he said. “...That’s 600 jobs, and let’s think about what that brought into our community. …We have not replaced them. …We need to fight for every little business we get to come in here. We need to fight for everything that we can make happen.”

Resident Susie Cerecedez said for the city to focus its concern on the poverty level before raising property taxes and to refocus its efforts from showing the appeal of the city.

“Our main concern should be our friends, family and neighbors right here,” Cerecedez said. “We shouldn’t spend our money on looking good for people in Weatherford, for people in other communities, because those people don’t pay the taxes here. We pay the taxes, and you’re wasting a lot of money by wanting to look good for people.”

The city manager said funding for Visit Graham, which coordinates many of those efforts, is from Hotel Occupancy Taxes, which are required to be used for tourism. 

Resident Greg Bonzelaar spoke regarding the unassigned fund balance for the city increasing over $1 million from fiscal year 2023 to 2024. He voiced his concerns with the city asking for more on property taxes, sewer and water rates.

“I understand the whole thing about the separation between the sewer and the water and all that, but just the total position of the city for that unassigned fund balance to go up 126%, over a million dollars, and you still want another $467 grand of property taxes from us, that’s unacceptable to me,” he said.

The city manager said along with the city’s credit rating being low for loans, it has faced other problems that have necessitated building that fund balance up.

“Part of that increase was deliberate in the net position. When I first got here and started looking at the previous audits, the tax rate was 60.5 on the 100. And for several years, the General Fund had been carrying a negative, unassigned fund balance...I think it was close to (negative $600,000) when I first started,” he said.

As the city is moving toward a capital improvement strategy for its aging infrastructure, part of that requires a non-negative fund balance in the General Fund. The city manager said the property tax rate has been increasing to build the that fund over time.

“What the Government Finance Officers Association looks for in a city our size is to have about two to three months’ worth of operating expenses in unrestricted fund balance,” he said. “…On average, absent any one-time expenses, the city currently goes through about $700,000 a month. To have three months’ worth of operating expenses at the high end, that’s $2.1 million.” 

In September, the city will have a community survey available with questions to hear from citizens and it will be open for around six weeks for feedback. 

The city received a $300,000 grant to update the city’s comprehensive plan and one portion of that is the community survey.

The city manager said the core aspects of what Willis discussed will be included in the budget, along with other aspects that citizens can voice their opposition to in the survey.

“The budget that council is going to be considering has all those things in there, plus it has a pool, plus it has a library, plus it has an airport, plus it has a convenience station. If you think that we’re at the point in this community that we don’t need those things, let us know in the community survey and let your council members know,” he said.