City approves budget, tax rate, HOT fund use

By Melissa McCaghren

Slatonite Editor

The City of Slaton approved the budget and tax rate Monday evening (Sept. 8) during a special meeting at City Hall.

The budget will raise more total property taxes than last year’s budget by 28.35 percent, or $527,105.88. Of that amount, $7,890.13 will be tax revenue from new property added to the tax roll.

Council also voted on the first proposed tax rate. The proposed tax rate is $0.685656 per $100 valuation.

The increase would be $685.66 for a $100,000 home, an increase of about $155 from 2024’s rate.

This is rounded up from the median household value in Slaton of $99,925, which would average to $685.14 for a house of that value. 

Taxes will go up or down depending on the valuation.

Tax rate allocations for 2025 included $0.266998 for Interest and Sinking, $0.368658 for Maintenance and Operations, and $0.05 cents for the Cemetery.

 This is the voter approved tax rate. 

It took action on a service agreement with Thin Line Software for Municipal Court-Code Enforcement.

Code Enforcement Officer Rebecca Britton said the software was currently just for Code Enforcement, but they were building one for the court.

She added she was happy with the program, which was built from the ground up, and had no issues with it. 

She added the system interlinks with the Police Department if Code Enforcement needed their assistance, such as putting notes in the reports for officers to appear at the scene.

For more information, including other items discussed at the City Council Meeting, please read the Thursday edition of The Slatonite.