Lubbock council gives final approval to budget, tax rate

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The Lubbock city council gave final approval to the budget and property tax rate for the upcoming year. There were no changes from the budget and tax rate council gave initial approval to a week ago.

It includes new “meet-and-confer” agreements with the police and fire departments. For the average single-family homeowner, the tax bill due to the city will increase $103 for the year.

Police Association agreement

The council agreed unanimously to a new one-year deal with the Lubbock Professional Police Association. The agreement will support 10 additional officers on the force of more than 450 officers. It also comes with a 5% raise for sworn personnel within the department.

Firefighters Association agreement

For the first time, the city has entered into an agreement with the Lubbock Professional Firefighters Association. It’s for six years.

One of the biggest parts is changing shifts for crews from 24 hours on-48 hours off, to 24 hours on-72 hours off. Each year the agreement adds about 22 firefighters to make that shift change possible and includes around 3% raises.

Council members said while this will come at great cost, it’s necessary to keep up with evolving responsibilities of fire departments in a growing city and will benefit fire crews mentally and physically.

Tax rate

The council approved a tax rate that is set at the no-new revenue rate plus an additional 3.2 cents per $100 valuation, with the 3.2 cents covering the cost of the meet-and-confer agreements.

For the average single-family home owner, this will be an increase of about $103 due to the city for the year.

Mayor Mark McBrayer said the council recognizes this is “a significant tax increase”, pointing out the general budget was covered by the no-new-revenue rate. Then the new agreements with fire and police were funded by the tax increase.

The mayor said the meet-and-confer agreements are designed to improve citizens’ safety. He said the council believes citizens want this investment to fight criminal activity and to provide good response to fire, accidents and health concerns.

“We want to be a safe city for our citizens.”

McBrayer said the decision was not taken lightly.

“This is the first time I’ve ever voted for a tax rate that wasn’t at the no-new-revenue rate in my whole time on the council,” the mayor said.

Click here – for many more details on the budget, meet-and-confer and tax rate, in our report last week.

This is the tax rate and appraisal effect on the average home, under the mayor’s proposal.(City of Lubbock)