The Edna City Council passed its Fiscal Year 2026-2027 budget and tax rate during a special meeting Monday night.The Edna City Council passed its Fiscal Year 2026-2027 budget and tax rate during a special meeting Monday night.
The meeting was held specifically to allow the council members to vote on the proposed budget and tax rate prior to Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting, since the new fiscal year begins Thursday.
The new budget features $3,845,570 in the General Operation Fund; $4,579,800 in the Water & Sewer Enterprise Fund; and $338,500 in the Interest & Sinking Fund, for a total budget of $8,763,870. It will raise $5,614 less revenue from property taxes than last year’s budget, which is a 0.69 percent decrease from the FY 2025-2026 budget.
The new property tax rate is $0.2263 per $100 of assessed valuation of all property subject to taxation within the corporate limits of the City of Edna. Of that $0.2263 rate, $0.1314 would be earmarked for the General Fund and $0.0949 would be earmarked for paying bonds, interest, and creating a sinking fund for General Obligation Bonds.
The FY 2026-2027 tax rate will raise less taxes for maintenance and operations (M&O) than last year’s tax rate by $90,713. It will effectively be lower by 16.36 percent and will lower taxes for M&O on a $100,000 by approximately $13.14.
The property tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year is $2,646.
The council also passed an interlocal agreement with Jackson County and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office to pay the wages and fuel expenses for deputies assigned to cover the City of Edna while the Edna Police Department hires and trains new officers to fill open positions.
New Police Chief Bryan Martin told the council that so far he has hired four new officers, some with several years’ experience from other departments, including one begins Thursday and another who starts on Oct. 14. Two others will be sent to the police academy for training.
In addition, City Manager Gary Broz told the council that the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) had cleared Martin earlier that day to begin working fully as a licensed police chief. To this point Martin had been doing administrative work for the department while waiting for his L1 certification.
The council also approved a request from the Port Lavaca Police Department to transfer a ballistic vest from the Edna PD to Port Lavaca. The vest had been fitted for and worn by Officer Brittany Bailey, who had taken a position at Port Lavaca. Since the vest will not fit anyone else on the department, the city agreed to transfer it for Bailey to continue to use, and per suggestion from Councilman Chris Jackson, the city also will ask Port Lavaca for a replacement vest in return as a swap.
During the Staff Report section of the meeting, Broz told the council that the CO project is continuing to move and that hopefully all the drainage pipe and boxes will be installed this week on Division Street. The contractor is working on some of the curbs on Division. The second pouring of concrete did not happen as expected on Friday and they are working on scheduling when it will be done. The contractor is still scheduled to move Mon., Oct. 5 to start the paving on Foxglove and Vanderbilt.
Bids for the Sunset Generator were opened last week and will be awarded during Thursday’s regular meeting, since it is in the FY 2026-2027 budget. Work continues on the environmental part of the MIT project. The police department generator is still in the paperwork stage but moving forward. The city is trying to close out the General Land Office (GLO) Comprehensive Plan grant, but it is a long, slow process. The GLO Reallocation Grant must be completed this week for the control boxes at the Mexico and Kleas Lift Stations. Mercer Controls is doing the project.
The city is working on specifications for the animal shelter and requesting bids to put the animal bed on the new Animal Control pickup truck. The Planning and Zoning Commission meets at 6 p.m. tonight (Tue., Sept. 29) for the county’s property purchase across from the rice dryers on W. Main Street. The fire marshal, building inspector, and code enforcement are working with Best Western to get them in compliance to pass their fire inspection.
Broz also said he and City Finance Director Valerie Callaway had a good, positive Zoom call with Standard & Poor’s last week about the city’s bond rating as the city has used reserves for the past two years. The discussion included the city’s finances in the future.
During her update, Callaway said that the FY 2026-2027 budget is ready to be implemented into the computer software on Thursday. She met with two members of the auditing firm Harrison, Waldrop, & Uherek, L.L.P., at City Hall on Sept. 21 to conduct interim audit testing, which they completed that day. She is working on closing FY 2025-2026 and getting the information ready to send to the auditors.
The current fiscal year and the current quarter end tomorrow (Wed., Sept. 30), so she is working on closing out the fiscal year and completing the quarterly reports to the Texas Workforce Commission, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), third quarter 941 tax reports, and the hotel/motel tax report. Also, the city received $5,986.26 of the $86,303.36 for police overtime from Operation Lonestar this fiscal year.
City Streets Supervisor Andy Brzozowski said that Kenny and Joel have been busy with the Dura-Patcher truck, working on Pin Oak, Allen, W. Cedar, E. Division, and N. Colorado streets. Crews have cleaned the east ditch on Ward Street between Yuba Dam and Rowlett and replaced two culvert pipes on Ward Street. They also added gravel base material to the dead-end part of Ezzell Street, removed a dead pecan tree at the corner of Pumphrey and Dugger Streets, and installed a new driveway on Peabody Street.
Utilities Director Brad Ryan said that workers repaired a water leak on W. Hickory Street; did disconnects and reconnects; cleaned the clarifier and UV lights; installed a sewer tap on Stafford; pulled the East Main Lift Station pump and de-ragged it; repaired a water leak at the sewer plant; and repaired a water leak at the shop.
City Parks Supervisor/Code Enforcement Jaime Liepe reported 37 open code violation cases, including seven dangerous/unsafe building violations; six junk/trash/debris violations; one mobile home skirting violation; six cleanliness of property violations; 18 mowing violations; and four abandoned/junk vehicle violations. Fifteen lots have been mowed. The city is still waiting for three properties to be demolished by the property owner. Liepe is working on sending letters for court in October for non-compliance and working on a list of properties for the next Building and Standards Meeting.
After the City Staff Reports were presented, the council went into executive session to discuss pending litigation and to discuss the City Manager, Broz. No action was taken when open session resumed, and the meeting ended.
The city council will meet again at 6 p.m. Thursday at City Hall for its next regularly scheduled meeting. The council meets at 6 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays of each month.