Mertzon City Council August 25 2025

Agenda Analysis | Meeting Review | Meeting Documents | Commentary | Last Meeting

Last week I saw The Fatal Loop by Charles Russell at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. See also Loops and Swift Horses are Surer than Lead at the Amon, then read the 1920 article from the Cattleman I posted below.

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Public Meeting Agenda

A. Agenda Analysis

1. Meeting time: Note that the meeting time starts at 6:15 p.m. This earlier start time is to accommodate for the two public hearings at items 6 and 7. Should you wish to object to - or praise - the Council's budget and proposed tax rate, here is where you would do it.

2. Executive Session, item 5: This matter relates to personnel. Typically when this item appears at the same meeting as the budget and tax rate it is to address staff raises. I am not aware of the particulars this year on raises, but my bias has always been that government employees are underpaid. Given the current economy, you can be certain that our city employees are having a more difficult time making ends meet.

3. Adoption of the budget and tax rates, items 8 and 9: These are the annual agenda items that are required by law to set next year's budget and tax rate. Refer to my meeting analysis on this page for this same meeting for the 24-25 budget and tax rate.

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A 1920 Cattleman's article about Lake Tankersley and John Ruth roping a wildcat, likely a bobcat, that had killed my Great Grandfather's, W.M. "Mont" Noelke, kid goat.

B. Meeting Review

1. Here are the meeting documents for this meeting. Pages 6-11 are important because they are the adopted budget for next year.

2. Public comments, item 4: I spoke, without prepared comments, to ask that the Council's budget include pay raises for City employees.

3. Adoption of the budget and tax rate, items 8-9; The Council met in executive session, as set out in item 5, to discuss personnel matters. They then voted to approve the budget and tax rate without much discussion. The specifics on the tax increase can be found on page 2 of the meeting documents.

4. Contrasting budgets: Since there was no substantive public discussion about how the budget was changing, you'll have to do some digging. I posted about last year's budget on this post, and here are the meeting documents for that meeting. The gist of these documents is that each year the Council is increasing taxes about 3.5% a year so that the City can stay up with its increased expenses. That increase is essentially mandated by law. If the City adopts a "no new revenue" approach, it loses that tax base forever.

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Quarter horse, 5 months pregnant

C. Commentary

You can do more than just voting in elections to influence government. As I've said elsewhere on these pages, the governmental body's budget is a statement of the community's values. So, one way to influence those values is to speak up before the next year's budget is adopted. It really takes very little effort.

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Copyright 2025 G. Noelke