Gladewater City Council members and city administrators wrap up budget season Sept. 22.
Today’s the official start to many a Fiscal Year, including for the City of Gladewater.
It wasn’t an easy budget season, but city employees and elected officials put in the hours, crunched the numbers and made it to the other side with a total tax rate of $0.567207 per $100 valuation.
That’s the so-called ‘No New Revenue’ rate for FY2026-2027 and represents a decrease of about 1.8 percent from the rate for FY2026, which officially ended Sept. 30. Granted, the revenues are shored up by increases to the base rates on the water side – i.e. $5.25 for customers on the lowest tier while the average comes in at a little less than $9.
After the city’s administrators, department heads, council members and other stakeholders hammered and whittled away at six preliminary budgets, it was draft No. 7 that arrived balanced with total revenues and expenses at $7,536,509 in the General Fund. In Fund 2 (that’s the Water & Wastewater side) the numbers balanced at $5,672,380.
One of the final, substantial components to shaving deficits and getting the numbers even is the anticipated injection of reimbursement funds coming back to the city from a variety of projects – the new lift station, monies from Texas Department of Transportation and payback for Snowmageddon’s generators.
By the end of the 20-minute meeting (a record, especially in recent weeks of workshops and special sessions) the council accepted the budget in a 5-2 record vote.
The ‘Ayes’ included Mayor Brandy Flanagan-Shipp plus Mayor Pro Tem Sonny Anderson alongside councilmen Kevin Clark, Milton Anderson and André Clay. Council members William Blackmon and Stoney Stone dissented.
“We do have a balanced budget,” the mayor confirmed Sept. 22. “We have a good understanding of where all the numbers came from.
“We didn’t want to compromise anything, but this wasn’t going to be a year we could do extras.”
The night’s remaining votes landed 6-1, with Blackmon dissenting on the property tax decisions.
“This 2027 budget process has been quite the eye-opening experience,” he said last week, reading from a prepared statement, “from staff getting all but accused of stealing money to long, no-resolution nights. I do want to say that I am sorry for everything that has taken place, even if those who should apologize will not say it.”
Blackmon went on to question the math, philosophy and legality of the final budget and tax actions. After weeks of long and often tense discussions, there was little else said Tuesday.
“Nope,” Clark replied, “that was a mouthful.”
Notably, the trimmed down figures do not include raises, a Cost of Living Adjustment or other compensation changes requested by staff.
“We unfortunately are not going to do COLA raises this year,” the mayor confirmed. “We have been able to do those for several years, which we are very grateful for.
“We are very grateful for the staff.
“One thing that we discussed yesterday was, quarterly, coming back before council and shoring up where we’re at with projected revenues and expenses. What we’re hoping is that after the first of the year we can actually make some adjustments to that for our staff.”
The goal was to be conservative with revenues for the coming year, she added, and to keep careful track of expenses.
“We hope those are better than we expect and we do get to do something for our staff.”