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Water costs continue to rise as our region has to pull water from farther locations in order to meet
demands from population growth. While consumption in the region has increased, we have not
seen an increase locally. We are faced with a situation of increasing supply costs and declining
consumption levels which requires consideration of an increase in water and sewer rates.

Property values in our area are increasing, and NRH is not an exception. That is the decrease
in the tax rate from $0.59 to $0.585 will increase the average resident’s tax bill by $73 or 7.3%.
If property tax revenue growth were limited to 2% as proposed by Governor Abbott we would
not be able to increase our street maintenance efforts in response the opinions of our
citizens, we would not be able to put a fourth ambulance in service to maintain adequate
response to our growing and aging population, we would not be able to hire additional patrol
officers for the first time since 2001 to keep pace with growth, and we would not be able to
provide market based salary adjustments for employees including firefighters and police
officers. With this in mind, we have a budget that addresses the needs, demands
and concerns of our growing community while also considering the impact to home and
business owners and being responsible with their investment. Each fund provides services that
are important to our citizens as they impact their lives directly every day.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark Hindman
City Manager

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