ROCKPORT, Tx — The City of Rockport has proposed a $64.3 million budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, including a 10% property tax rate increase that would cost the average homeowner an additional $252 per year.
The new rate of $0.45 per $100 valuation, up from last year’s $0.41. The proposed budget includes:
- A 3.5% increase in the maintenance and operations (M&O) rate, the maximum allowed without triggering a rollback election.
- A 26% hike in the interest and sinking (I&S) rate to fund infrastructure projects.
City Manager Vanessa Shrauner defended the increase at a recent council meeting, calling it necessary for long-term investments.
"This is working under the premise that we started last year, that we were going to fund long-term projects with long-term money," Shrauner told the council.
The budget would allocate funds for:
- Road and drainage repairs** ($3.7 million for Enterprise Street, Broadway erosion, and other projects).
- Police radios ($470,000 replacement).
- Fire department reimbursements($667,459).
- Reserve funds (23 additional days added).
Several Rockport homeowners spoke against the tax hike, including Andrew Kane, who criticized the city’s financial approach.
"The new tax rate we're being told by the city finance director, quote, marginally speaking, it is 1%. That's a lie." Kane continued, "The last three years, we've seen a 52% tax increase by playing games and you want another 13.2% this year."
"We just keep borrowing millions for expenses that normal M&O budget used to and should pay for, that's bad bookkeeping. You borrow millions a year via tax anticipation notes that don't require voter approval to pay for normal expenses of the city like pay raises, computers, vehicles."
Patrick Kane added in written form, "Stop misrepresenting the tax increase. You can't adopt a 3.5% voter approval tax rate and add 4.5 pennies to the interest and sinking rate tax rate and say, marginally speaking, the percentage increase is 1%."
The council will hold public hearings on September 9 and 23 before a final vote. The budget must be approved by October 1
KRIS 6 News reached out to Shrauner’s office for additional comment but has not yet received a response.
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