Nixon approves budget, tax rate

Nixon City Council passed its budget Monday for fiscal year 2019-20. There wasn’t a seat left in city council chambers for the meeting Sept. 16. While some had other concerns, many were curious about the card residents were mailed about the city’s proposed tax rate.

The Gonzales County Tax Assessor-Collector mailed card informed citizens of the city proposed, and eventually adopted, a tax rate of 39.29 cents per $100 of valuation. The rate is a slight decrease from the previous year’s figure though it will generate an increase of $40,437 in revenue. Alderman Justin La Fleur wanted to correct some of the information on the card.

“Everybody that got the card saying the city was increasing the tax rate 11.37 percent, that is not the case,” La Fleur said. “Our tax rate last year was .40 and some change, council has thus went down to .39, so we decreased the tax rate. The increase is in tax revenue based on the inflation of the appraisal district.”

Following deliberations in executive session, council rescinded its initial approval of the budget and added three amendments. Funding for an extra employee was added, $30,000 was added for street materials and a line item for K-9 expenses was added. Following the amendments, council reapproved the budget.