During Tuesday morning’s meeting, the Brownwood City Council approved the tax rate of $.6925 for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The proposed tax rate is a decrease from last year of $.0013 or 0.19%. This will increase total tax revenues from properties on the tax roll by 4.63%.

Council also ratified an ordinance accepting payment by certain credit cards of fees, fines, court costs, or other charges, and collecting a processing fee and/or service charge for processing payment by credit cards.

The City currently absorbs all credit card processing fees for payments made by residents and businesses including utility bills, permits, fines, etc. Annual costs to the City for these transactions are predicted to rise to over $600,000 for the 2024/2025 fiscal year and have become detrimental to the budget. A 3.5% fee will be applied to payments made via online portals, in-person terminals, and phone transactions. Exemptions will include payments made via ACH or electronic check. Texas law permits municipalities to charge a convenience fee if the fee is disclosed prior to payment and the fee does not exceed the actual cost incurred.

Council also approved an ordinance setting charges, fees, rates and deposits for customers on the Brownwood water, sewer and sanitation system for the 2025-26 fiscal year.

There is a 2.5% increase applied to the water base rate, average residential customer would go from $31.45 to $32.24. There is an 11% increase applied to the sewer base rate, average residential customer would go from $34.72 to 38.56. There is a 5% increase in the sanitation rate, average residential customer would go from $26.06 to $27.36. The City also proposed a $3 increase in the Landfill gate rate for out of city limits customers from $49 a ton to $52 a ton. This is an unplanned increase that became necessary when the county informed us on August 14, 2025, that they were discontinuing their landfill subsidy of $8,400 a month, which caused a revenue loss to the budget of $100,800. There is a new proposed fee structure for brush brought to the landfill for outside city limit customers, commercial and large quantity generators only.

Council approved an ordinance setting charges for fees, rentals, licenses and permits for the City of Brownwood for the 2025-26 fiscal year.

Included in the fee ordinance are updated fee structures for the health permit fees to comply with Texas Senate Bill updates. Currently, our fee is $60 for a 5-day permit, while the state’s fee is $52 for a 14-day permit. In addition, yearly health permit fees are increasing from $150.00 to $215.00. However, we will no longer be charging alcohol permit fees. Brownwood Municipal Airport changes include a $15 across the board adjustment for enclosed and shared hangars and a $5 increase for tie-down and hail shed hangars. These increases are to account for CPI while continuing to move the City closer to market rates for hangars. There is also a $1 increase per person for entrance to the Lehnis Railroad Museum and Visitor Center for groups of more than 15, from $2 to $3.

Council also awarded GWG Wood Group of Ferris, Texas the Landfill’s brush grinding for the 2025-26 fiscal year at a cost of $116,500.

City Staff solicited proposals to grind the landfill’s brush and received three qualifying bids. The Landfill budgeted $130,000 to cover the brush grinding cost. The request for proposal stated that two grinding events will occur and that each will consist of approximately 40,000 cubic yards of brush. The remaining funds will be used to cover additional costs if the City has more than 40,000 cubic yards for either grinding event.

Also Tuesday, Council awarded administration to Grant Works to complete project implementation for the EDA-Disaster-2025 administered through the EDA and U.S. Department of Commerce.

The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) has received $1.5 billion in federal funding through the American Relief Act of 2025. This program supports construction and non-construction projects that advance economic recovery, infrastructure resiliency, and long-term community development in areas affected by federal disaster declarations in 2023 and 2024 and the City of Brownwood is eligible. The grant requires an 80/20 federal-to-local match, with higher local matches improving competitiveness. Typical awards range from $2–5 million.

To maximize opportunities, staff recommends leveraging the anticipated downtown Certificates of Obligation (CO) issuance as the City’s local match. The City has completed its Request For Purchase for grant administration services. Once an administrator is selected, the application process will take approximately 10 weeks. Potential projects if the grant is received is downtown infrastructure, storm drain replacement, underground utility improvements, and other master plan projects that strengthen disaster resilience.

In other business items approved were

• the Brownwood Municipal Development District budget for 2025-26
• the donation of 12 surplus laptops to the Center for Life Resources
• a negotiated settlement between the Atmos Energy Corp., Mid-Tex Division regarding the company’s 2025 and 2026 Rate Review Mechanism filings requested rate increase

Mayoral re-appointments approved Tuesday were Ed McMillian to the Brown County Appraisal District, Lisa Dick to the Center for Life Resources Board, and James Deshields, Mary Acuna and Cathy Day to the Brownwood Housing Authority Board.