The City of Dilley failed to adopt the proposed budget property tax increase at the September 29th deadline due to lack of quorum. As a result of missing the vote, the property tax rate for the next fiscal year will default to current rate of $0.802301.
City Councilmen Sabino Mena, Gilbert Eguia, and Mayor Pro-Tem Ray Aranda did not attend the September 29th meeting that could only afford one absence to hold a budget and property tax vote. Without at least four councilmen in attendance, there would be no quorum. Without a quorum, there could be no vote, and without the vote, the city would not be able to raise taxes.
By 8:15pm, the only councilmen present were Esmeralda Cano and Morelsa Aranda. The meeting was called off, and the city’s property tax rate would remain at the current $0.802301.
“You can write that your boys just cost the city $130,000,” Mayor Mary Ann Obregon said at the end of the meeting, probably referring to Mena and Eguia, as she had already excused Mayor Pro-Tem Aranda’s unexpectedly-scheduled-to-be-out-of-town absence as work related.
City Manager Rudy Alvarez explained how the adopting the current property tax rate would affect the city. “The general fund revenue will drop from $584,000 to $450,000, because we’ll have to take from maintenance and operations to cover debt service,” he said, citing the city’s legal obligation to cover debt before operations.
–written by Jose Asuncion.
Jose received an MFA from University of Southern California in 2008, a BA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2003, and currently lives in Dilley, TX, home of his grandparents.