Dave Rogers

For The Record

Pinehurst City Council increased its tax rate by 3 cents per $100 value for 2018 and approved a 2019 budget of $3.1 million at Tuesday night’s monthly city council meeting.

Because of widespread flooding in last year’s Tropical Storm Harvey and a drop of 11 percent in property values for the city of 2,000, the tax rate needed to be raised to generate needed city operations funds.

But even in going from a rate of 69.762 cents per $100 value to 72.762 cents per $100 value, the tax rate was effectively lowered by 4.96 cents.

If a homeowner’s house was worth $100,000 last year, after exemptions, and maintained that same worth this year, the city taxes would go up $300.

But, as city secretary Debbie Cormier said, “Everybody’s house dropped in value after Harvey.”

Four other agenda items Tuesday were the result of the Texas General Land Office’s delay in setting up rules to apply for Harvey CDBG Disaster Recovery grants.

All were passed.

One called for rescinding awards already made to Shaumberg and Polk for engineering and to David J. Waxman, Inc., for grant administration.

Another involved approving a selection review committee to review proposals for engineering and grant administration services for the project.

A third was to put together a Request for Qualifications for grant administration services; the last was to put together a RFQ for engineering services.

City manager Robbie Hood and councilman Dan Mohon were reappointed to represent Pinehurst on the Orange County Economic Development Board of Directors.

Cormier reported the city’s general fund was up $118,000 from this time last year and that the city’s reserve fund had enough money to fund six months of operation, twice what is recommended.