TYLER, Texas (KLTV) – Tyler City Council received the next proposed budget Wednesday morning. Here’s where your tax dollars may be going over the upcoming fiscal year.
The budget for fiscal year 2025 totals $255.9 million in spending, which the city notes is up 6 percent from the previous year. A proposed lower tax rate of $0.240085 “maintains Tyler’s position as having the lowest tax rate in Smith County.” Taxes from higher valued property, which the city says is up 10 percent from the prior year, will help bridge this gap.
The city’s plan is broken down into several main sections and their subcategories.
Public Safety
The city noted this section as a top priority in their budget; 67 percent of General Fund Expenditures fall into this bracket. The subcategories presented in public safety spending were police, fire, animal control and code enforcement.
- Police: The Tyler Police Department would receive $37.9 million in the fiscal year 2025. Along with regular annual spending, new 2025 expenditures include: A PD regional training facility ($1.3 million), AXON (manufacturer of tasers, law enforcement cameras, drones, and software) replacement program ($523,768), two new downtown-dedicated officers ($194,213), patrol car upgrades ($49,360), and fiber connection for the TPD gun range ($4,000).
- Fire: The Tyler Police Department would receive $25.8 million in the fiscal year 2025. Along with regular annual spending, new 2025 expenditures include: A new fire engine and new fire ladder ($2.6 million), Class A burn building ($130,000), equipment for participation in Texas Interstate Fire Mutual Aid System ($25,000), new property for a training facility, and demolition and replacement of Fire Station 2.
- Animal Control: First year of kennel updates at the animal shelter ($50,000).
- Code Enforcement: Continued demolition of substandard structures ($200,000).
Water and Sewer
Tyler plans to invest $50 million into water and wastewater projects in 2025. Previously, KLTV reported on the 8,000 meters the city was planning on replacing; this plan increases that number to 11,000 with an additional $1 million. As a whole, the 2025 water and sewer plan will increase customer costs by $10.90 to $24.49. The main subcategories for this section are operations, capital improvements, and storm water.
- Operations: Numerous equipment purchases and general system upgrades, each with an exact expense. The spending for each item totals to $959,604.
- Capital Improvements: Water projects and wastewater projects. Water spending is listed as $29.32 million, and wastewater as $21.68 million. Both categories have numerous projects listed; notable are meter and line replacements, sewer repairs, and treatment plant upgrades.
- Storm Water: Employment positions and project funding. $161,116 total funding would go towards the creation and conversion of city positions in this field. $1,676,000 would go towards numerous projects.
Quality of Life
Tyler plans to spend $27.7 million on the downtown improvement project over the next three years. They estimate that $10.3 million of this will be spent in 2025. In addition to downtown, they plan to improve parks and the Rose Complex.
- Downtown: As KLTV has reported extensively since the project’s conception, the Smith County Courthouse will be demolished and rebuilt over the coming three years. In 2025, the city has budgeted an estimated $10.3 million for the enhancement of green space on the west side of the square and right-of-way improvements. They noted that timelines and costs related to this project are subject to change until a final construction bid is awarded.
- Parks: This includes $775,000 for Stewart Park improvements, an increase of $100,000 for tree removal funding (bringing the total to $200,000 available for contracts), and $15,000 for new equipment.
- Rose Complex: Most notably, the city proposes to hire a horticulturist for the Rose Garden ($86,965), who they note would maintain the garden’s 38,000 rose bushes. They also include concrete bed replacements ($100,000) and demolition of the old fair ground facilities ($150,000).
Infrastructure
This section includes the development of and investment into streets, traffic, and other transportation-related projects.
- Streets: An additional crew leader for the Tree Crew and conversion of four laborer positions to semi-skilled laborer positions ($26,000).
- Quality Street Commitment Fund: Crack seal projects ($1,493,818), brick street repairs and maintenance ($869,772), and public alley repairs and maintenance ($165,000).
- Traffic: Increased traffic signal maintenance ($31,500) and converting a city position ($4,708).
- Engineering: This would add a Resident Project Representative ($154,577).
This is the general outline of the city’s plan for the 2025 fiscal year budget, and does not include every minute detail of their proposed spending. The proposed budget will not be adopted officially until the city council meeting currently scheduled for Sept. 11. Meetings are held at Tyler City Hall at 212 North Bonner Avenue at 9 a.m. One additional meeting is scheduled for Aug. 28 prior to budget adoption.
You can view the city’s official budget presentation and proposed tax rate at the City of Tyler website. To view your property tax calculator, click here.
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