Here are the headlines Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe read on-air this weekend:
Probability of property tax increase
This week, city leaders got their first look at the financial picture for the coming year and several budget stressors came into view.
Jessica Williams, Denton’s chief financial officer, told the City Council during a workshop Tuesday that many months of inflation have now compounded the price of things that make a city a city—from electric parts to water pipe. In addition, local growth in revenue is slowing in the two primary ways the city pays for things—property tax and sales tax.
Jessica Williams: “You kind of see here with sales tax, we saw the spike. This is when federal funding flowed freely into our economy. And with all of that extra cash, we saw great returns in sales tax. It was fantastic across the state, really most places in the nation. However, those days have come to an end and we are now looking at reverting to the mean. So our mean is about 6 percent year-over-year. We fluctuate on that mean, of course, with a standard deviation. So we’re actually are anticipating that at the end of this year we’re going to be about 3.54 percent above the prior year, which is really kind of where we’re tracking right now.
“This month we were about $4.6 million, which was about 4.3 percent over the prior year and 3.94 percent over the last 12 months.”
Williams told city leaders that they will know more about the property tax base near the end of July, when the Denton Central Appraisal District releases the annual property tax rolls. She cautioned them that about half of the new valuations are currently under protest and may not be settled by then.
In addition, she said that the city will likely need to raise the rate for debt service, which makes up not quite half of city’s total property tax rate.
Taxpayers will know where the city manager lands on that issue when she releases next year’s budget on July 31. The city council’s first budget workshop is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 10. More information at cityofdenton.com.
Texas job market still growing, but not all benefit
Local employment growth slowed in May as the city and county unemployment rates increased to 3.5 and 3.4 percent respectively, and the number of people on local payrolls dropped.
While the local civilian labor counts often shrink at the start of summer, the totals, year-over-year, show signs of slowing compared to the past few years.
In addition, the first of two reports coming this summer from the Dallas Federal Reserve found that not all groups are benefitting from recent gains in the Texas job market. Since 2005, relative earnings for low-income Texans have barely budged for Blacks or Hispanics when compared to Whites. Among high-income individuals, the fed also found that racial and ethnic disparities persisted or worsened from 2005 to 2019. Only Asian Texans experienced relative growth in income since 2005.
According to the Dallas Federal Reserve, if income disparities are not addressed, they could create economic headwinds against future economic growth.
More information at dallasfed.org.
Air conditioning, a Texas summer essential
In two split votes this week, Denton joined Dallas and Houston in requiring landlords to provide air conditioning in homes and apartments. Only council member Joe Holland and Mayor Gerard Hudspeth voted against the requirement.
A council majority also voted to block mobile home parks and community associations from prohibiting window units for aesthetic reasons—although council member Jill Jester joined Holland and Hudspeth in voting no, saying that people should be able make rules for their neighborhoods and communities.
More information at cityofdenton.com.
Now showing
Get out of the heat and under the stars this summer at Sky Theater, where the University of North Texas astronomy department is screening several different films in the planetarium. A Saturday children’s matinee explores the exo-planets. More information at astronomy.unt.edu/nowshowing.
The meaning of a handshake
Thursday is National Handshake Day, a practice that may date to ancient Greece, but gained popularity with the Quakers in America, who believed the custom could serve as a sign of equality.
Local News currently airs each Wednesday at 10 a.m. on KUZU 92.9 FM-LP in Denton, Texas, with rebroadcasts airing at 3 p.m. Thursday, and 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Friday. The Weekend Edition of Local News airs each Saturday at 4 p.m., with rebroadcasts at 9 p.m. and midnight; and 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. Sunday.
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On air since 2017, KUZU is Denton’s only volunteer-run, nonprofit community radio station. You can learn more and listen online at kuzu.fm.
Local News and Weekend Edition scripts are published on Substack. Subscribe for free at peggyheinkelwolfe.substack.com and follow live microblogging of Local News on Mastodon @phwolfe940@denton.social. Peggy is an award-winning, veteran journalist and a Denton County resident since 1993.