FlyRod said:

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Should the growth (which most here seem to favor) that leads to such tax increases also be put to the voters? Just curious...

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The percentage increase in tax revenue from the growth is much higher than the percentage increase in the population growth. It therefore isn't surprising that people here are favoring the growth while opposing an increase in the tax rate. The city is already receiving a windfall in taxes from the growth, far beyond the simple percentage increase of population growth. Read back in this thread to find the figures.

Looks like they have owned the tract for about 20 years and it is on the tax rolls for about 4 million They should make plenty of money. How would a person find the cost basis ? What a dream to own land for 20 years and pay ZERO property tax for all those years then sell it (in this case they probably paid very little) and realize a HUGE tax free gain.

In addition to the 6% water rate increase, they have also included a sanitation rate increase with this line in the proposed FY18 budget:

"The FY18 budget for Sanitation includes a proposed rate increase in residential and commercial rates projected to be implemented in the fourth quarter of FY18."

The budget does not specifically state what the rate increase will be.

Design plans for the new police station can be found in the PowerPoint on this page: https://blog.cstx.gov/2017/10/02/live-blog-mondays-special-city-council-meeting-oct-2/

MeKnowNot said:

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In addition to the 6% water rate increase, they have also included a sanitation rate increase with this line in the proposed FY18 budget:

"The FY18 budget for Sanitation includes a proposed rate increase in residential and commercial rates projected to be implemented in the fourth quarter of FY18."

The budget does not specifically state what the rate increase will be.

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They need to quit increasing all the rates!

It's not like everywhere just increases people's salaries to go along with every ridiculous increase the city decides they want.

They should have to put these things up for a vote. If they did, I bet the rates wouldn't go up nearly as much. That definitely should include tax increases. Almost all the council members are old enough that their taxes are frozen. I don't think they should be deciding if they are personally unaffected by the increases.

Frio Cielo said:

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To me, any increaee in tax fees, tax rate, fees, or any other public cost to property owners over the annual rate of inflation should have to be voted in by the voters.

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I totally agree.

FlyRod said:

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Should the growth (which most here seem to favor) that leads to such tax increases also be put to the voters? Just curious...

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That would be nice. I'm not in favor of so much growth and don't think the city needs to annex so much of the surrounding area especially if residents of the area to be annexed don't want to be.

AgGunNut said:

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Given that officers should/need to be spread out geographically based on density and call load, how would you feel living in an area not patrolled nearly as frequently or having to call for help and the response taking longer because they're further away or otherwise tied up?

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Would that mean we might be better adding a substation in another area, maybe south College Station?

montegobay said:

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How do we get a copy of the budget? I would love to see how our money is being spent and allocated.

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They keep a copy of the budget at the public library.

Disagree. The patrol officer's job (those responding to calls for service) is not to be sitting at the office waiting to go somewhere. Their job is to be out in the field short of submitting evidence, booking someone, or taking care of some sort of specialized task. Those specialized tasks (processing/submitting evidence, etc) are best done at a centralized facility for a city this size since duplication of services would be needed for a second building yet not fully realized like in a much larger city that has multiple stations. This would increase the overall amount of support employees needed for no other reason than redundancy. The difference in multiple police buildings versus fire stations is that demand for support services (non-cop jobs) isn't nearly as high for the fire department needing non-firefighter/ems jobs at every station.

Address of the property south of Fitch?

It only gets better - now that councilman Benham has increased our taxes, he wants to play architect with the new police station he made us pay for.

According to the article that Duffelpud linked, they are getting rid of the jail and everyone who would normally briefly go there will instead go to downtown Bryan.

What is happening to the existing building? It has a jail and will soon have a lot of vacancy.