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City Of Von Ormy Poised To Eliminate Property Tax

City of Von Ormy

The small southwestern Bexar County town of Von Ormy is attempting to run its city without the aid of a city property tax starting next year.

The city of Von Ormy incorporated in 2008 and since 2009, its mayor, Art Martinez de Vara, has vowed to remove the city portion out of its resident’s property taxes. Martinez de Vara said even without property taxes the city’s budget will increase 30% for the next fiscal year. That’s due to increasing sales taxes.

“Our sales taxes are up roughly 400+%t since the year we started and we’ve avoided debt, we’ve kept our overhead low,” Martinez de Vara said. “We’re not doing this an austerity measure.”

The mayor said the increased sales taxes are due to traffic from the Eagle Ford Shale project and increased traffic along IH-35, where most of its businesses are located.

There are already plans for the increased budget.

“We’re increasing our budget for the fire department, we’re increasing our police budget by 50%, we’re buying a city hall – cash – we’re buying some new police vehicles – cash – we’re buying a new playground – cash,” Martinez de Vara said.

Currently Von Ormy residents pay 25.5 cents per $100 valuation of a home. Because it’s a reduction in taxes the city doesn’t need to call a public vote but can simply approve it during a council meeting.

A town hall will be held on the budget. If a budget is approved the city property tax will be taken off the tax bill starting in 2015.

Joey Palacios can be reached atJoey@TPR.org and on Twitter at @Joeycules