The town has been remarkably busy going through the processes to set our budget for next year. In my last article, I announced that that the Northlake Town Council, on July 24, unanimously passed tax relief for seniors and disabled homeowners.
We increased this exemption from $100,000 to $200,000 which will save approximately $295 additionally to the previous exemption amount in Town of Northlake taxes on a $500,000 home.
I am happy to report that we will be keeping our lowest tax rate of any home rule municipality in North Texas of 29.5 cents per $100 of valuation. It has been a mission of every council I have seen or participated in since I moved to Northlake in 2013. I am grateful to our staff who keep doing more with less. CPI inflation is up about 17% over the past four years, but concrete costs are up nearly 60%. Road projects, labor, materials have all seen significant price increases. We are trying to serve our residents with very little in terms of increased revenues.
Did you know that last year if you took ALL property tax revenues, residential and commercial, that the Town of Northlake collected, it did not even fully fund our Police Department? The next time someone talks about lowering Northlake’s tax rate, ask them how many police officers should we cut? I applaud our staff for making so many things work with limited resources.
On August 21 in a joint meeting with our EDC and CDC boards, we found a way to return some sales tax money to you, our residents. You may not know, but your sales tax money goes to various places.
Nearly everywhere in Texas, sales tax is a combined 8.25% rate. 6.25% goes to the state of Texas. We have 2% going to the Town of Northlake. Out of our 2 cents per dollar of sales tax, 1 cent goes to our general fund supporting our local budget items like roads or police along with other items. 0.25 cents of each dollar goes to the debt service on the new StarCenter Multisport facility; this was voter approved several years ago with about 70% of votes passing the item. Finally, 0.75 cents gets split among our Economic Development and Community Development Corporations, also known as the EDC and CDC. This money, by law, can only be spent to drive business into the town along with a few other highly regulated uses. It cannot be used for roads, police or other routine use items.
We have several businesses that are struggling on Hwy 114, multiple data points show additional hardships added to these businesses as the 114 construction project enters new phases of closures. However, even with heavy traffic on FM 407, those businesses are thriving over the same period. We want our businesses to succeed, so this month we will be mailing out $25 vouchers for use at businesses along 114 that have been affected. Each household within Northlake town limits will receive one card by mail. This will hopefully drive people to try a new business they have not gone to before or avoided due to construction. This gives you a $25 coupon to use at any participating business. I do not have a list of participants yet as the businesses will need to sign up for the program. Those wishing to participate will be listed on the card. This is a small way that we can support our businesses without just issuing grants. You get savings and the choice where to spend it and the business see an increase in business. This is a pilot program, and we hope to bring it to FM 407 businesses in the future.
We encourage you to learn more about your local government. Come out and visit us at the next council meeting on September 25 at 5:30 p.m. As always, I am happy to answer any questions, and you can email me directly at [email protected].
