CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — At the most recent Corpus Christi City County Budget Workshop, council members were presented with a new number to consider.
The property tax rate would move from around 62 cents per $100 valuation to about 59 cents. It’s something Nueces County Tax Assessor/Collector Kevin Kieschnick said is state-mandated.
"The reason the rate came down is because values have gone up so much. Rates and values are independent of each other, so when the value goes up, the rate has to go down," he said.
Of course, any day that brings taxpayers even a little bit of savings typically counts as a good day. But in this case, the excitement is a bit muted.
“Just because the rate came down does not mean that they gave a tax break. They did not," he said.
Even with the lower tax rate brought on by an increase in appraisal values, taxes may still go up. It’s something District 5 City Council Member Gil Hernandez pointed out last Thursday at the Budget Workshop.
"We’re reducing your tax rate to just shy of 60 cents per $100 of valuation, but we’re actually increasing your taxes by 7.6 percent," he said.
3NEWS spoke with Hernandez and asked whether there is anything the City Council can do between now and the time the new budget is adopted on Sept. 5 to help taxpayers who are worried about paying more.
"There’s still a lot of places we can cut and make changes so that we can reduce that. It’s not a done deal yet. I think we can reduce this even more," he said.
There is a final session for residents to offer their input on the proposed budget. The session takes place Wednesday at Del Mar College's Oso Creek Campus in the culinary building.
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