After weeks and months of meetings and hearings the Mineola City Council approved the 2016-2017 tax rate and the $4.3 million budget it supports during their regular September meeting last Monday.

The $4,319,105 general fund budget was approved unanimously on a motion by Mitchell Tuck, Ward 3 alderman, and a second by Kevin White, Ward 2 alderman. It was down from the previous year’s $4,393,461 general fund budget.

It is a balanced budget and includes no raises for city employees. The tax rate is 56 cents per $100 evaluation and the tax revenue will be slightly less than a six percent increase over the 2015-2016 year revenues. Last year’s rate was 55 cents per $100 evaluation. However, with increased property values, the city looks to collect $73,230 more in taxes. Of that, $6,381 is due to new property added to the tax roll.

As they finished with the lengthy process last Monday Mayor Rodney Watkins took time to comment again on how much he appreciated the work that was put into the user-friendly version of the budget by City Administrator Mercy Rushing, Financial Officer Cindy Karch and the department heads.

Also in the meeting, the mayor asked the council to take a long look at the city’s bond debt. He said that he, Rushing, Karch and White had met with a representative of Southwest Securities, the city’s bond representative and had “an interesting discussion. “

The mayor pointed out that while the bond that had been obtained by the city for the wastewater treatment plant will be paid off in 2018, the payment on a bond obtained in 2007 will increase to a level the city will not see a savings from paying off the wastewater debt. The 2007 bond was for rehabilitation of Bromberg, Freeman and Patten Streets. Watkins questioned why, in the early years, the city has paid very little on the principal of the 2007 debt, which causes the interest to be higher. While he said he wasn’t an expert on bonds, that normally when someone finances something such as a house, they pay as much as they can on principal to avoid having to pay more interest.

The city’s payments of 10 years have only decreased the principal of that $4,165,000 debt by $270,000. “We have paid $1.68 million interest to day, which is just mind boggling,” he said. Looking over the city’s bonds, he said, “There are a lot of concerns.” And, he noted that while most of them probably wouldn’t be on the council in 2032 when it will be paid off, the total the city will have paid on that original $4,165,000 will be $7,673,988.