White Oak proposes lower tax rate with more revenues from appraisals

Following another budget workshop Thursday, White Oak City Council members are moving closer to budget and tax rate approval for the 2024-2025 Fiscal Year.
On Aug. 15, the group took a unanimous record vote on a proposed tax rate of $0.64204 per $100 valuation, including $0.09424 for interest and seeking plus $0.5478 for maintenance and operations. It’s the voter approval rate, the maximum a city government can adopt without triggering an election.
Notably, it’s also a decrease from the current rate of $0.64241 per $100 valuation for FY24. That said, due to increased property appraisals, the lower rate will generate more revenue for the city than the current figure.
That number’s still being calculated, says Kristine Toon, city secretary and financial director for White Oak. It will be available to council members during their next regular meeting Sept. 10.
“We will have some excess to put into reserve,” she noted. “Right now, in our General Account, we are required to have six months of operating expenses. We are at seven, so we’re in good shape.”
Granted, with costly infrastructure projects underway and on the drawing board, any surplus funds are already being eyed for upcoming work.
That’s a central theme of the FY24/25 budget, Toon confirmed.
“I would really say it’s ‘plan for the future.’ It’s not so much growth because we’re kind of landlocked.”
In the same mindset, White Oak City Hall is angling to replace the city’s standpipe with a water tower.
“The standpipe by our fire station, it’s not efficient,” Toon confirmed. “We’d like to change that to a water tower” alongside plans to maintain the community’s water plant and sewer facility in addition to long-term development of a new raw water intake, i.e. building the water system out to the Sabine River.
“We’re trying to get our plans for those major improvements.”
Another central theme of the FY25 budget process is a recurring one: Maintain.
“We have 20-year-old vehicles we’re still driving and maintaining,” Toon said. “We maintain our equipment so it lasts, which I think is important for our citizens to know.”
The city’s mid-August Town Hall Meeting drew just eight resident-attendees, but they seemed to leave with a broader perspective, Toon said.
“How the city runs was explained. When they understand how a city has to spend money, it makes more sense to everyone.”
General Fund revenue for the coming year is projected at $4,413,111, with planned expenses of $4,215,233. That leaves a rough estimate of $197,878 in surplus revenues to go into reserves.
Utility Fund revenues are estimated at $4,426,845 with expenses of $3,586,055.
The anticipated $840,790 utility surplus (restricted to related projects) is broadly earmarked for the Hwy. 42 expansion, with the city tasked with moving waterlines for the TxDOT project.
The Fiscal Year 2024-2025 budget for White Oak Economic Development Corporation is still being crafted.