The vote means that when the city adopts its tax rate in September, it cannot go higher than that.
The city also set the stage to approve both its 2025-26 budget and set a tax rate in September.
The details
Pearland City Council voted 4-3 at its Aug. 11 meeting to propose a maximum tax rate of $0.6350 per $100 valuation,
The maximum rate is 2.51% above the no-new-revenue rate, according to agenda documents.
Council members Joseph Koza, Tony Carbone and Layni Cade voted against the proposed rate.
In addition to setting the maximum rate, council unanimously voted to place the fiscal year 2025-26 budget on the Sept. 8 and 22 agendas.
What they said
Earlier at the meeting, Carbone proposed decreasing the proposed maximum tax rate to $0.630 per $100 valuation, which would be a 1.7% increase from the no-new-revenue rate.
Council member Clint Byrom spoke against lowering the tax rate, citing concerns that the city would have to cut expenditures in key areas such as infrastructure and roads.
“As we discussed during the special budget meeting that we had, we know that there are multiple areas where we are short on funding—for infrastructure, for roads, IT ... so I would rather it stay at the $0.6350 and give us the headroom to discuss how we allocate those funds.”
Looking ahead
City Council will hear the first reading for the budget and tax rate at its Sept. 8 meeting, followed by a public hearing on the tax rate and final adoption of the budget and tax rate at its Sept. 22 meeting.
