June 13, 2018
By: Dwayne Page
The Smithville Mayor and Board of Aldermen are expected to get down to business on passage of the city’s 2018-19 fiscal year budget Thursday night.
A work session will be held at 6 p.m. to hash out what extras if any are included in the new spending plan from this past year based on requests from the aldermen and city department supervisors. A special meeting will follow the workshop to act on first reading passage of the budget. If it is approved second reading action will follow at a special meeting next Thursday, June 21 at 6 p.m.
For the past 12 months, the city has been operating under a $6.3 million budget funded partly by a property tax rate of 64.9 cents per $100 of assessed value (the same as previous years). The city property tax rate generates $884,000.
Water and sewer rates increased this past year. City water customers now pay $7.25 per thousand gallons of usage. Rates for customers outside the city limits are now $10.88 per thousand. City sewer customers pay $6.75 per thousand gallons plus a flat usage rate of $3.62.
City officials said the rate increase was needed to help make up the difference in the loss of revenue due to the departure of the DeKalb Utility District as a water customer.