Michael Arburn, president of Utility Tax Service, told the Downtown Business Improvement District at its July 29 meeting that his firm has activated the district’s taxing authority with the Webb County Appraisal District and is prepared to begin publishing and collecting next season’s assessments.

Arburn said the district’s certified rolls for 2025 are in his office and that the next formal steps are publishing the tax rate and mailing bills. “We’ve already activated your, taxing authority with Webb County Appraisal District,” he told the board, and said the district’s service plan lists a proposed rate of 20¢ per $100 of assessed value.

The presentation described how the firm will pick categories of property to include on the roll, excluding classes that the service plan indicates should not be assessed. Arburn said Utility Tax Service will provide monthly collection reports to the board and will mail tax bills in October. “I’ll get some information offline from Justin about where we’re going to transfer the funds that are collected, and we’ll walk you through the processes once I actually have a written report for you guys,” he said.

Arburn also described payment-processing arrangements the firm will bring back for board action. He told the board the Texas legislature requires taxing authorities to accept electronic payments and that the firm uses Certified Payments to handle card and ACH processing. He said the processing fees are passed through to the consumer and cited a 2.5% card fee and a $1.50 ACH fee as typical examples. “There’s no fees to the district whatsoever. The pass through is directly to the consumer,” Arburn said.

On safeguarding deposits, Arburn said he will present a depository pledge agreement with Stellar Bank to collateralize public funds over the FDIC limit. “What that deposit pledge agreement does is it collateralizes your funds over $250,000,” he said, adding the district itself would not be expected to hold that magnitude in the tax account.

No formal board vote occurred on the tax collection contract at the July 29 meeting; the board approved minutes from its June 10 meeting and the chair said action items related to the collection contract will come back next month with a checklist and the agreements for the board to consider.

What’s next: Utility Tax Service will deliver the written service plan, merchant/ACH agreements and the bank pledge documents for the board’s review and for formal authorization at a future meeting.