10-24-05 Regular Meeting of Fiscal Affairs Committee Minutes

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revenue by $20,925, and givhose over 65 an average $19.6~nnual savings. If the city grants disabled residents a local option of $15,000 and the disabled resident has applied for and received the 20 percent homestead exemption, that would result in about a $78.74 saving per household. The city's revenue would be decreased about $7,244 in this case. In total the city's revenue would decrease about x$28,000, Chrisman pointed out these figures were based on average home valuations for the two segments of the city's population. "The homestead exemption is not an automatic thing," said City Manager Jeff Howell. `2~esidents must apply for it -it's not a given thing." Chrisman based her figures for those over 65 on an average home valuation of $75,633. With the 20 percent homestead exemption and the $15,000 local option, that would bring the taxable value of the property to ,$45,506.40. At the current 53.493-cent tax rate, that would bring annual city taxes to an estimated $238.88 Figures for disabled persons with the homestead exemption were based on an average property value of $57,850. With the homestead exemption and the local option, that would bring the average taxable value of the property to $31,280 and the owner would pay an estimated $164.30 annually in citytaxes. Chrisman said reports indicate Kilgore has about 1,063 households with residents in the over 65 age bracket. "VVe don't know if all of them have applied for the homestead exemption,"Howell said. "If they haven't, it would be a good move to make." Records indicated 93 disabled persons live in Kilgore. Chrisman said her figures were based on information from the Gregg County Appraisal District. The discussion came during this week's city commission meeting. In other business, Commissioner Billy Bob Brady questioned details of a plan by Kilgore Economic Development Corporation to reinforce the pier at Synergy Park/Elder Lake. The pier, reportedly built according to specifications, wobbles when people walk on it. KEDC's minutes indicate they are asking the same engineering firm to draw plans to strengthen it. "So, they designed it incorrectly and now we're considering paying them to draw up specifications to fix it. Do I understand that correctly,"Brady asked.