Robinson city leaders opened a public hearing on the proposed 2025–26 budget and moved to schedule a vote next week to adopt a proposed tax rate they say is largely tied to debt issued for street repairs and a ladder truck.
City Manager Craig LeMint summarized the technical rates required under the states truth-in-taxation process and said the increase in the proposed budget is driven by debt service after the council issued certificates of obligation on Aug. 5, 2025. "The entire increase of the tax rate is tied to the debt service," LeMint said. "The actual portion of the tax rate that funds operation and maintenance is actually going down about a quarter of a cent."
The council held the public hearing on the tax rate and budget and then voted to set a meeting to adopt the rate on Aug. 26, 2025. The council did not adopt the rate or final budget at the hearing.
Why it matters: Council members repeatedly said rebuilding and repaving decades of deteriorated roads is the primary policy objective behind the proposed tax increase. Members argued the citys collectors and arterials are largely chip-seal and require asphalt resurfacing and widening in places; they said that failure to address the streets will hinder economic development and that issuing debt now is the means to tackle a multi-decade maintenance backlog.
LeMint told the council the city was required to calculate three technical rates: the no-new-revenue rate (44.3426¢ per $100 valuation), the voter-approval rate (53.9732¢), and the de minimis rate (53.9667¢). He said the budget team presented a proposed rate of 50.9937¢ per $100 valuation when the budget was prepared; the Aug. 5 public notice used the higher voter-approval rate to preserve flexibility. LeMint said the council issued $33,000,000 in certificates of obligation on Aug. 5, of which $25,000,000 is tax-supported; of the tax-supported portion he described $2.5 million for a ladder truck and $22.5 million for street reclamation and reconstruction.
Council members emphasized trade-offs. "There's no way that they are ever going to get repaired spending $700,000 a year in maintenance on roads that were finished 20 years ago," one council member said during the hearing, arguing the debt was the only practical option to accelerate repairs. Another council member noted Robinson has fewer employees than neighboring cities and said the budget also includes salary adjustments and modest increases in street and park maintenance.
Budget totals presented at the hearing included a general fund projection of $10,414,766 (a 5.2% increase) and a utility fund proposed at $11,910,111 (a 3.6% increase). The debt service fund projection was shown as $3,313,085, a 47.5% increase, which LeMint tied solely to the tax-supported portion of the certificates of obligation.
Public comment included homeowners urging tax relief; the council responded by inviting citizens to review budget materials and attend upcoming workshops. The council closed the hearings and set the meeting to adopt the tax rate and to take final action on the budget at the Aug. 26 meeting.
Ending note: The councils action at this meeting was to set the adoption date rather than to adopt a final tax rate or budget. Final adoption is scheduled for the next council meeting on Aug. 26, 2025.