At our August 18 City Council meeting, we took the first steps toward setting Grand Prairie’s property tax rate for the coming year. The proposed rate is $0.66 per $100 of taxable value — the same rate Grand Prairie has maintained for the past three years.
That said, I believe you deserve more than simply being told that the rate is staying the same. You deserve to know what that actually means.
The City’s proposed tax rate is $0.66. The no-new-revenue rate — the rate calculated to bring in approximately the same amount of revenue from properties taxed in both years — is lower, at $0.635388. Because our proposed rate is above that number, state law requires the City to publish a notice describing it as a property tax increase.
That is an important distinction, and one I think residents should understand.
While the rate itself is not increasing, Grand Prairie is expected to collect more property tax revenue overall. The City’s total property tax levy is projected to increase from approximately $148.9 million to $155.5 million, an increase of about $6.6 million, or 4.43 percent.
At the same time, the City’s required tax notice estimates that the city property tax on the average Grand Prairie homestead would actually decrease by approximately $187, from $1,835 last year to $1,648 this year.
Those numbers may sound contradictory at first, but they aren’t. Property values change, new development is added to the tax rolls, and the amount collected citywide can increase even when the tax rate itself stays the same.
Grand Prairie is fortunate to have a strong tax base. That is good news for our community, but a strong financial position does not mean we stop asking questions.
Quite the opposite.
Every dollar collected by the City came from someone who worked for it. I believe we have an obligation to make sure those dollars are being used wisely; including for public safety, streets and infrastructure, quality city services, and the priorities that make Grand Prairie a great place to live.
That means looking beyond whether we can afford something and asking whether we should spend the money. It means planning for the future while taking care of the basics today. It means being willing to explain our decisions to the people who pay the bills.
That is the kind of accountability I believe you should expect from your City Council.
The tax rate has not been finally adopted yet. The City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing and consider adoption of the tax rate on September 15 at 6:30 p.m. at Grand Prairie City Hall.
Before we take that vote, I want to hear from you.
If you have questions about the tax rate, the city budget or how Grand Prairie is spending your money, reach out to me. You may agree with every decision we make, or you may not. You deserve a City Hall that listens, answers questions and remembers who we work for.
In service to you,
Rodney Anderson