The Orange City Council Tuesday approved on first reading a new budget that will start October 1. The tax rate will be 70 cents per $100 valuation. No one spoke during the public hearing on the budget. The current tax rate is 68 cents per $100 but the 70 cents per $100 is considered the effective tax rate because the city has lost property values and will raise the same amount of income.
City Finance Director Gail English gave a PowerPoint presentation on highlights of the budget. The general fund, which pays for the general operations of the city, including police and fire protection, is $18.8 million. Industrial district contracts with plants, most outside the city limits, provide 38 percent of the income and property taxes are 27.7 percent. Sales taxes are 14 percent of the income with inter-fund transfers another 14 percent of the budget and franchise taxes 7 percent.
The water and sewer department is under a separate budget as an “enterprise fund,” meaning that the income from services charged pays for the department.
English said Waste Management, the contractor for garbage pickup, is having a 1.1 percent increase in rates. The basic residential rate is now $20.77 a month and with the increase will be $21 a month. The city is not having an increase in water and sewer rates.
The budget also includes a 2.2 percent pay increase for all city employees. District 3 Councilmember Essie Bellfield said she thinks the city should not give a percentage because people with a higher salary get more of a raise than those making less money. No one else on the council agreed with her.
The Rev. Demetrius Moffett, pastor of the First Church of God, asked the council for help in improving the community. He spoke to the council Tuesday evening with more than a dozen of his congregation in the audience of the council meeting.
Rev. Moffett said his church is launching several programs and wants to “go to the depths of the lives of citizens.” The plans include an October event in Navy Park.
The park has ‘No Parking’ signs along the northern perimeter and he asked the council to change the signs. He suggested the signs prohibit parking from dusk to dawn.
Moffett and his congregation want Orange to become an example of unity.
The Orange City Council Tuesday gave special recognition to the Golden K Kiwanis Club for keeping Orange clean through the Adopt-a-Street project. Club members pick up trash and litter along 10th Street from Polk Street to Western Avenue, on 28th Street from Sunset Drive to Park Avenue, and on Main Street from 16th Street to South Street. Mayor Jimmy Sims thanked members for their help.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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