Josephine council sets proposed maximum tax rate, schedules Aug. 20 public hearing

The Josephine City Council voted unanimously Aug. 7 to set a proposed maximum property tax rate of 0.468097 per $100 of assessed valuation for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2025, and scheduled a public hearing on the proposed rate for Aug. 20, 2025 (the motion records the hearing time as 7 p.m.; the agenda item text referenced 6 p.m.).

Council action matters because setting a proposed rate starts the state-required public-notice and hearing process before a final tax rate is adopted; the council’s motion also directed publication of the hearing notice in the Farmersville Times and the Greenville Herald Banner and posting on the city website.

During the special meeting, which opened with roll call and the Pledge of Allegiance, two residents spoke during public comment urging greater transparency about annexation-related charges and recent utility increases tied to the local municipal utility district (MUD). “It’s really frustrating when we receive a letterhead saying, okay, we haven’t on this date, we’re going to up this by this dollar amount. You have a week to tell us, but then there’s nothing else,” one resident said. The resident said requests for itemized costs and records have returned tax documents but not detailed, itemized explanations of specific annex-related charges.

A city staffer identified in the record as the city administrator said the city had commissioned a study that “breaks down the cost” and that the administrator “has all the information” and would meet with the MUD board to share the study’s results. The administrator’s remarks were offered in response to residents’ requests for transparency; the transcript does not record a timeline for when the study will be published to the public.

On the council motion, the transcript records a member moving to set a proposed maximum tax rate of 0.468097 per $100 valuation for the City of Josephine for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2025, and ending Sept. 30, 2026, and to schedule a public hearing on Aug. 20, 2025. A second was recorded; the motion passed on a roll-call vote with all seated councilmembers voting in favor: Doug Ewing (Aye), Brad Ofinger (Aye), Alex Esquivel (Aye), Dr. Pam Sarto (Aye) and Gary Chapel (Aye). The council directed that the hearing notice be published in the Farmersville Times and the Greenville Herald Banner and posted on the city website.

The motion and accompanying record corrects earlier typographical errors in the item description: the fiscal-year end date was clarified in the discussion to Sept. 30, 2026. The transcript shows a discrepancy in the hearing time between the agenda language (6 p.m.) and the motion text (7 p.m.); the council did not state a subsequent correction to the hearing time in the transcript.

Next steps recorded in the meeting include the scheduled public hearing on Aug. 20, 2025, and the requirement to publish notice and post materials online. The transcript does not show a final adoption of the tax rate; adoption requires a subsequent hearing and vote after public comment and any additional staff reports.