Collinsville adopts 71 cent tax rate

After a two-hour public hearing Monday night, the Collinsville City Council unanimously voted to adopt a 2025 property tax rate of $0.71 per $100 of assessed valuation on taxable property within the city limits.

Nearly 100 people crowded into the Community Building to voice their concerns of a proposed property tax rate of $0.857743 (per $100 of assessed valuation). Per de minimis tax rates, this is the highest amount the city could go that would allow the city to break even and add a $500,000 cushion to its budget.

Mayor Chase Guidera first welcomed the audience and reminded everyone that the city council, a board of volunteers, was there to make decisions for the betterment of the city.

“This, tonight, is not you versus us or vice versa,” he said. “We’re honestly here to make a sound decision on what’s best for the city as a whole. I don’t think anyone on this board wants to touch that (de minimis rate). This gives us room to discuss and hear from you guys and see what’s best for this community as a whole.”

City Finance Director Karla Young then presented a summary of the city’s financial history to help the audience understand what has led to where the city is today.

Young, who has worked for the city since Jan. 8, 2024, reviewed the city’s historic tax rate back to 2015. In her research, she learned that, not only has property value grown, but the city has had a history of lowering property tax rates.

In 2016, the city lowered taxes. In 2017, they lowered them again by two cents. In 2018-2020, they were lowered, and in 2021, they raised them by one cent. In 2022, they lowered taxes by nine cents. In 2023, taxes were raised by 18 cents, and in 2024, they were raised by 15 cents. This means that since 2015, the city has raised taxes a total of 25 cents.

“Those are the real numbers for what the City of Collinsville has done in the past,” Young said. “In those years the city wasn’t raising taxes, they established services for you and didn’t look at how much those services were going to cost versus how much revenue they were taking in.”

Young pointed out that the city has experienced a steady population increase and new housing developments, and that growth has put a strain on the water and sewer system. These things weren’t addressed sooner because the city, as a result of not raising taxes in the past, didn’t have money with which to handle those maintenance issues.

“The truth is, this tax rate proposal is not to pay for budgeted items that they’re budgeting now... It’s to pay for things that councils 10, 15 years ago approved,” Young said. “We have made leaps and bounds of improvements over the last couple of years. If we continue to strengthen at the rate that we’re strengthening, we will be in an exceptionally good position for the future.”

Citizens took turns addressing the council, voicing their opposition of the tax increase. Some argued the council was using the tax rate to confuse citizens, while others, like Michael Cox, asked the council to consider the difference between “want” and “need.” Many in attendance felt the council should take another look at the budget to trim the fat and remove excess spending – even if it meant salary cuts and sacrificing public safety officials.

“Taxpayers are maxed out,” Cox told the council.

Citizen Ken Kemp addressed the council to point out that if Collinsville were to adopt the full $0.86 tax rate, it would be the highest municipal tax rate in the county – the next closest would be Denison at $0.71. Kemp announced to the audience that he had a tax rollback election petition in hand for people to sign after the meeting should the council adopt a tax rate that the citizens felt was too high.

Property owner and longtime area resident Brian Millson also spoke at the meeting, pointing out that as a real estate businessman, he’s one of the highest tax payers in the city. 

“Some of this is inevitable,” he said of the tax rate increase. “I think there can be a compromise. I don’t think we need to shoot for these maximums. I think we need to trim the budget, let’s look at what we can cut. We don’t want to put hardships on people that live here. My suggestion would be, let’s look at something that we can live with today. Take ‘til next year to evaluate, what could make some changes, what could get us by? Then we actually see the numbers instead of wondering what it may be. Just try to do something that’s palatable.”

At this point, the council explained that with the current property tax rate of $0.61, the city is in a $266,000 deficit. It would take a tax rate of $0.76 for the city to simply break even. This of course wouldn’t allow for any unplanned emergencies or disasters.

When citizens wanted to know why the council was asking for the maximum tax rate, City Attorney Patricia Adams explained that the Texas Tax Code lays out the procedure for tax rates. Once a city adopts their budget (which the City of Collinsville did last Friday, and it is currently on the city’s website for public viewing), the city has to take a vote on a proposed tax rate. The official tax can go below that rate, but not above.

Mayor Guidera shifted his approach and addressed the audience as stakeholders.

“Do we all agree, everyone that lives here is a stakeholder in the city?” he asked. “Let’s call this a stakeholder’s meeting. At what level are we going to base everything? Do we base it on a fixed income? Things are failing. To be honest, I wish we had millions of dollars to rip stuff out and replace it brand new, but we’re not there. So as stakeholders, if we leave here with an agreement we can live with, as a whole, where do you want to be? What’s fair to everybody?”

Some citizens offered suggestions but there was no general consensus.

Alderman Austin Lewter suggested a rate of $0.71, which would bring the deficit to $83,000.

“On a $250,000 home, that would be another $20 a month,” he said. “And then the city could take it upon ourselves to trim some fat.”

While many residents voiced their desire of the “bare minimum” in a tax increase, that at some point, there’s going to be a negative impact on the services the city offers its citizens, according to Lewter.

“If we adopt under $0.76 this year, next year the rubber’s going to hit the road,” Young said. “Next year is when we start facing those service impacts.”

The public hearing was closed at 8:16 p.m. and the council discussed the numbers. Ultimately, the council voted on a $0.71 property tax rate ($0.638058 toward maintenance/operations and $0.070942 toward INS debt). This is a 10-cent increase from the previous property tax rate.

Kemp announced on social media that he will move forward with his petition.