Pinehurst City Administrator Robbie Hood presented his first budget as administrator of the city to the City Council Tuesday morning. The $2.9 million budget is rather lean according to Hood. “We’ve had to go through and look at what was requested and what we could afford at this particular time. We are down from last year in sales tax revenue substantially. We were able to keep and maintain the current level of services that we offer to the citizens of Pinehurst and keep that going. This budget does not reflect a pay increase at all across the board, our insurance rates have gone up about 3 percent so we’re absorbing that, we’ve had to cut out any capital equipment request at this time, and still maintain that certain level of service that’s expected,” Hood stated.
The proposed tax rate for next fiscal year in Pinehurst will stay the same 69.799 cents per 100 dollars value as last year. The proposed tax rate actually represents a slight decrease from the effective tax rate and thus Pinehurst will not be required to hold a public hearing on the proposed tax rate. The City Council did approve holding a public hearing on the budget as part of its September 8 council meeting. The council will then vote to approve the budget and the tax rate at that meeting.
The City Council approved the recommendations of insurance coverage for Pinehurst city employees this morning. Liz LeBlanc of TK Health Insurance recommended Pinehurst stay with the Texas Municipal League as the health insurance provider. LeBlanc suggested MetLife for both the dental coverage and the vision coverage for Pinehurst employees.
The Storm Water Quality Ordinance required by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality was approved by the City Council as it has been by several other cities in the county. Pinehurst has joined other county entities in approving to cut funding to the Orange County Economic Development Corporation effective October 1 which is the start of the next fiscal year. The council agreed to keep the $3,000,000 which had been the annual payment to the EDC in the budget for future economic development considerations.
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