TYLER, Texas — As leaders unveiled the city's proposed 2023 budget Wednesday, the City of Tyler said it wants to spend a little extra to make residents' life better.
City infrastructure is one of the items the city is prioritizing for this upcoming fiscal year. Among other priorities are public safety and employee retention.
"You have this continued amount of money that is just now being poured into our maintenance of our facilities and our infrastructure which benefits our citizens and their quality of life," said Ed Broussard, Tyler city manager.
The city plans to give police officers and firefighters a 5% pay increase. Police Chief Jimmy Toler highlighted the nationwide issue of officer shortages.
"We want to attract them to Tyler and we want them to be good officers for use, but (it) has to be competitive. This raise this year will put that recruitment rate at $60,000, so we start to bring those officers in and we want to keep them here," Toler said.
With public safety in mind, the police department will equip every officer with new body cameras, tasers and upgrades to police vehicles.
"As we put this equipment in their hands, we’re hoping that we’re able to provide a safer Tyler," Toler said.
With infrastructure, there will be upgrades to the brick roads near downtown. The city also wants to identify rundown buildings and remove them if they're at risk to the public.
"This funding mechanism puts that in place for us to be able to deal with those structures, to clear those properties, possibly allow for future development and other things going on," Toler said.
Your water bill will also look different. The city will no longer subsidize the first 2,000 gallons of each customer’s bill. Instead, customers will be charged for the total amount of water they use. And the per-gallon rate won't go down for more consumers who use more. It will now stay the same regardless.
"For every gallon you use then you’re paying what that cost is to produce that gallon of water," Broussard said.
If approved, the average customer will see an increase of about $20 on their monthly bill. The money will pay for upgrades to the city’s water and sewer systems. The budget will also decrease property taxes and slightly increase sales tax to prepare for a recession.
The city council will have two public hearings on Aug. 24 and Sept. 14 before voting on the budget at that second public hearing.