Date change dilutes state of city address

 The Kyle Chamber of Commerce’s annual State of the City luncheon normally occurs in July, a week or two before the city manager unveils the proposed operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year and, thus, the speech often offers a valuable preview into the contents of that budget proposal. This year, however, today’s State of the City Address from Mayor Travis Mitchell came three weeks after the budget was originally presented — in fact, only hours before the City Council is scheduled to finally approve the budget and the new tax rate — and, as a result, was largely devoid of any major announcements. It was more like a recording artist issuing a greatest hits album instead of a collection of new songs.

Still, Mayor Mitchell said some things I found interesting, if not exactly earth-shattering.

First, and the detail I thought was most fascinating, was Mitchell’s mentioning that while Kyle and the rest of the state and nation are still in the grip of a deadly pandemic, local businesses are not only not exactly suffering from economic downturns, but, in reality, “We just recognized the most sales tax revenue in our city’s history in any one month last month.” These sales tax figures reflect sales during the month of June. “The June sales tax collections were over $1 million,” Mitchell said. “We’ve only breached $1 million a few times and this time was higher than we even forecast.”

As a result, Mitchell said, “Our budget is strong, and we’ve been able to reduce our tax rate.”

Mitchell also mentioned the fact that the Greater San Marcos Partnership and Hays County set aside $.5 million for small business grants during the pandemic and “We were the only city to partner with Hays County and the GSMP, adding $100,000 that we had received from the federal government and earmark those dollars specifically for Kyle businesses.

“So not only will Kyle businesses be receiving the $100,000 we have put forward, but they will also be receiving their share of the $500,000,” Mitchell said. “So it puts a lot of money into the small businesses in Kyle that were affected by COVID. We’ve already started issuing some of those grants to small businesses.”

Mitchell also spent a significant amount of time talking about the two bond proposals that will be on the November ballot — $37 million for a new police headquarters and $10 million for park improvements — proposals, which, if approved by voters, will mean that tax rate which is going down via tonight’s vote, will most likely be going up again this time next year.

Mitchell also reiterated that Hays County also has a parks bond proposal on the November ballot and, if it passes, $10 million in revenue from the sale of the those bonds will be used to match what Kyle’s bond sales generate. What I had not heard before was what Mitchell said next:

“Originally, the majority of those (county) dollars were to go to Wimberley and the Hill Country. We worked very hard to help the county see the value in the parks projects that we have here in Kyle. While we may not have vast open spaces for the preservation of aquifers and things like that, our park systems are just vital and they’ve never been more vital than they are going through this pandemic.”