The Whitewright City Council heard from no one in the public last week during a time set aside for the public to address the council on the proposed tax rate for the 2027 fiscal year. While there wasn’t a of deal of discussion about the tax rate the sidewalks on Grand Street were discussed at length.
Mayor Sarah Beth Owens said the proposed tax rate is .721022 per $100 valuation. That is a tax increase of about .224324 per $100 valuation or 45.16 percent. Information in the meeting’s agenda said that would be an increase for the average homestead of about 1.18 percent. The M&O tax rate is .560639 on each $100 of valuation of property. The I&S tax rate is .16038 per $100 valuation. The council approved that tax rate after hearing from no one during the public hearing.
Owens pointed out that while the information in the packet shows that the new tax rate will cause the city to increase its tax collection by $338,835 that doesn’t mean the city will have that much money left to spend on new projects.
“Just to be clear that ($338,835) includes debt payment that we are now going to have to make on the INS side of the rate,” she said adding that payment is around $250,000.
Owens turned her attention to the sidewalk project on Grand Street. While she talked there were people outside cleaning up debris from the project. The project was funded through a $500,000 Texas Community Development Block Grant with a $50,000 local match provided by the Whitewright Community Development Corporation. The reconstruction of around 860 feet of sidewalk and the construction of around 807 feet of new curb and gutters on the north and south sides of the 100 block of Grand is funded through the Build America, Buy America Act which means the contractors in charge of the projects, in this case, Alliance Construction and Concrete Services, are required to use American-made materials whenever possible.
Owens said she had heard the paperwork to comply with the Build America Buy America act had not been completed to the satisfaction of those in charge of processing payments for the contractors so while the contractors had put in two payment requests, they had yet to be paid.
Owens said she was notified by the contractor that they could not afford to continue the project without payment and so they would be leaving the city for an extended period of time.
“There is no mechanism that I have been able to find so far for the city to compel them to do the work in the timely fashion that we would prefer. They have not violated their contract. They have so many months to get the work done,” she explained.
Owens said she will keep the council apprised of developments with the situation as they occur going forward.
She acknowledged that the council will likely have to deal with complaints from the public about the incomplete status of the project. However, she again stressed that the contractors don’t have to complete the project according to any timeline proposed by the city other than that in the contract. She said they still have several months left to complete the project according to the contract.
“They tried to compel me to pay out of city funds for the work that they have done so they could continue,” she said. However, she said she doesn’t have the power to do that, and she didn’t think the council would approve such a plan, and the city doesn’t have that kind of money just sitting around.
There is performance bond in place, Owens said, but the city can’t do anything to enforce that until the contractor has failed to perform in a timely manner and that is still months away.
