Bedford council: tax-rate hearing set; staff outlines options and next steps

City staff told the council the procedural steps required to finalize the budget and tax rate: set a maximum rate in the coming days, schedule the required public hearing because the proposed rate is above the no-new-revenue rate, and act on the budget and rates at the Sept. 8 finance-day meeting. "In a few days, we're gonna be voting on the maximum tax rate y'all can consider," Brady Myers said, and staff confirmed the public hearing will proceed prior to the Sept. 8 vote.

Council members discussed trade-offs between staying below the voter-approval ceiling versus using the remaining increment to increase employee pay. The mayor asked a hypothetical about moving from the proposed 2% employee COLA to 3% by exercising the voter-approval capacity; staff said the difference to reach the voter-approval rate would generate about $353,000 in additional revenue and equates to roughly $20 annually for the average taxpayer. "So we would be able to afford 3%," Myers said in response to a council question, while also warning of limited "wiggle room" if revenues underperform.

Why it matters: procedural choices now shape whether the council leaves room for next year or uses available voter-approval capacity to increase employee compensation this year. Staff also flagged that unused fractions of the rate can be carried forward under state rules to future years, which factored into some councilmembers' preference to conserve capacity.