Cadiz City Council is holding a special-called meeting at 5 PM Thursday, in order to address a number of concerns and expectations, as members consider raising current taxes above the compensating rate.
During a 2025 tax rates proposal presentation, City Administrative Officer Jack Lingenfelter and others will recommend a real property rate of 22.9 cents per $100 of assessed value and a personal property rate of 43.2 cents per $100 of assessed value. According to calculations, this should bring in more than $456,000 — or exactly $50,000 more than the compensating rate.
This proposal is a 2.5-cent increase on real property, and a 4.7-cent increase on personal property, meaning it is an increase of $25 per $100,000 of value on the former, and $47 per $100,000 on the latter.
The expected revenue impact will be allocated to things like police, street and fire equipment replacements, infrastructure maintenance, debt obligation and general operational expenses.
Per City of Cadiz officials, there is no record of an increase above the compensating rate since before 2000 — a span of at least 26 years. Since then, labor costs have increased 107% and inflation has increased 70%.
How has the city managed until now? Well, also to be presented:
+ The city made do with reserves until the option was exhausted.
+ There has been deferred infrastructure maintenance, leaving systems in a state of more expense to repair than replace.
+ Lots of operating equipment has been used to the point of failure, creating large replacement needs — and no dedicated funding for replacements.
+ Manpower has been reduced through attrition, preserving cost-of-living adjustments for remaining employees.
+ Capital investments have been bypassed to maintain existing services.
+ The alcohol tax is restricted by state law, and can only be used for key expenses.
+ An increased insurance premium tax is helpful, but hard to predict.
+ Large expenditures have been offset with grants and underwriting.
+ And COVID-relief funds and one-time grants were relied upon “heavily,” temporarily masking underlying budget pressures.
There will be no vote on the tax Thursday, only a first reading following council discussion and public comments.
A first reading of a nuisance ordinance will also be heard, before members go in executive session for proposed, or pending, litigation against or on behalf of a public agency.
