Brownwood Mayor Stephen Haynes gave his annual “State of the City” address at the Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce’s monthly luncheon, held at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church’s Connection Center, on Friday. Haynes stated that overall, the city is doing well, but there are certain areas the city must address in order to continue the growth of city revenue as well as retail development.
Haynes began with recognition of important events over the past year which included the addition of a new ladder truck to the fire department, repaving of many city streets including a large portion of Fisk Street, funding of the soccer complex, and the groundbreaking of two new grocery stores – United Supermarkets and Aldi.
Haynes also highlighted other community achievements such as the opening of the Lyric Theatre, the many successful charitable fundraisers for groups such as CASA, the Boys and Girls Club and many others, along with the success of the Brown County Youth Fair sale for reaching almost $300,000.
Haynes stated that these events and accomplishments help draw attention from retail businesses, industry and potential residents to the City of Brownwood. He also noted that these events improve the quality of life and illustrate the generosity of the community.
Keeping taxes as low as possible is an important goal that most citizens support, according to Haynes. He outlined the growth of sales tax for the City of Brownwood over the past several years, showing growth of 18.8% in sales tax revenue or $1,030,783 as compared to 2010, just five years ago. Shopping at home for everyday items adds revenue to the city budget without having to raise tax rates. He stated this is why he feels retail recruitment is vital to our city.
“$1 million dollars, that’s real money and that makes a difference in the services that we can provide to the citizens of our community and it doesn’t come out of your pocket unless you consume it. You’re choosing, it’s not a forced tax, like an ad valorem tax or some of those other things,” explained Haynes. “So if we can keep those sales taxes local, it makes a gigantic difference in how our city performs economically and really helps in keeping your taxes low.”
Additional residential and commercial building and the increase of property values also adds to the city’s revenue through ad valorem taxes.
Haynes stated that although both are a revenue stream to the city, sales tax had a larger impact in 2013 with a total increase of $412,664 as compared to ad valorem tax revenue increase of $126,158.
Haynes stated that unemployment rates in Brownwood are at 4%, which statistically means that everyone is employed that wants a job. In fact, there is a shortage of skilled laborers in the city and that is a challenge to employers who want to hire.
Growth in commercial building has slowed as indicated by the decrease in number of commercial building permits issued in 2014.
“We’re running out of real estate where people want to be,” said Haynes. “So now we are seeing an increase in the prices of available building sites.” Haynes explained that this causes the more desirable retailers to pass on building in the city because the initial investment is too much and affects their overall profits.
Residential real estate sales in Brown County were relatively flat, Haynes stated there was a sales volume of $40 million; however the value of properties throughout the county increased in 2014.
Haynes stated that the ad valorem tax rate of $0.7463/$100 evaluation in Brownwood is below 75 other cities in Texas. Cities such as Dallas at $0.79/$100 evaluation, Fort Worth at $0.85, and Waco at $0.77 are very comparable. He stated that the highest tax rate in the state could be found in Longview at $2.50/$100 evaluation.
The average household income in Brownwood currently has increased $6000 since 2012, according to Haynes, to $40,539. The national average household income in 2013 was $52,250 and statewide was $51,704. This too creates a problem for retail recruitment and the industrial component, due to the below average income said Haynes. Pointing out the $6,000 increase in household income, Haynes stated, “This is good news, but also shows we have a way to go.”
Although the economy is good in Brownwood, Haynes stated that there are still some challenges to be faced, including the lack of land for development and its escalating prices, education of citizens, and lack skilled workers and housing.
Haynes explained the educational demographics of Brownwood.
“There is only about 22% of our population that has an associate degree or better. Only 17% of the population has a bachelors or post graduate degree. 37%, nearly 40% of our population only has a high school education,” stated Haynes. “I’m not being critical but I am pointing out what retail and industrial recruiters would look at when they consider our community and we don’t fair very well when compared to the Dallas/Fort Worth area or Austin. So some of you have asked why I support education, ‘why are you out there supporting Howard Payne University or Ranger College or TSTC?’ It’s right there, the only way we can improve is to become more educated. Educating of our citizens is vital in our ability to recruit retail businesses.”
He explained that Brownwood schools focus on preparing their students for college and the best of the best have been sent to impressive universities; however, the community needs to find a way to get these students to return to Brownwood as citizens.
“Every year we go about the process of graduating a group of seniors and we take the best and the best and the brightest of that group of seniors, we take the top 10% and sent them to the our best state universities. The next 20% we send to other universities and what happens to bottom one-third, they stay here, right?” asked Haynes. “So how many of your generations of rural Americans continue to do that? How many generations of rural Americans can we continue to educate, our best and our best and our brightest, and retain those who are not well educated? It’s important for us in the community to know that education of our citizenry, of our community, is vitally important to improve our economy.”
Haynes also brought up some upcoming issues the city will face in the near future, such as water (finding an alternate source of water due to the current drought), the Willis Creek Channelization study (a crisis regarding flood insurance), and the proposed tax abatement for senior citizens which recently passed at the county level.
Pictured above is Haynes as he spoke to the attendees at the luncheon.
