The current Cibolo city council incumbents recently voted to increase our property taxes by 2 cents. While not a fan or raising property taxes, I feel that this modest increase was justified. Cibolo has not increased property taxes for several years & our city needs to hire additional police officers to keep our streets safe & additional fire fighters to man the new fire station that is being built near the water tower off 1103 in District 4. The recent property tax increase will cost homeowners about $60 per year for a house that is appraised at $300K.
Right now, the sales tax rate in the City of Cibolo is 8.25% for all purchases made in our city. On November 6th, Cibolo voters will be able to vote on Prop A which calls for the re-authorization of a quarter percent sales tax to be used for the maintenance & repair of municipal streets within Cibolo. This is not a vote for a NEW tax, but rather a renewal of this tax percentage amount that will be used to repair & maintain our roads. Our current sales tax rate of 8.25% will remain as is & it will not go up. If we do not vote to re-authorize this quarter percent sales tax amount, Guadalupe County or the State of Texas will pick up this quarter percent, leave our sales tax percentage as it is today, 8.25%, & take the money generated from this quarter percent & use it for road improvements outside of Cibolo. We are going to be paying 8.25% in sales taxes either way, this vote is to keep the quarter percent sales tax revenue we all pay right here in Cibolo & spend it to maintain & improve Cibolo roads instead of roads elsewhere in Texas.
Moving forward, I don’t see a compelling need to further raise property or sales taxes. New housing startups are breaking ground every day here in Cibolo. These properties will soon be added to our current $2B dollar taxable properties total, thus generating new property tax revenue for our city. Santikos is breaking ground in District 1 & will be open for business early next year. This development will bring in a bonanza of tax revenue not just out of Cibolo resident pocketbooks, but from moviegoers in surrounding cities & folks traveling on i35. New businesses have been slow to open within our city interior, but I feel that we have a growing population with high median incomes, plenty of land, improving infrastructure, & that Cibolo is an attractive destination for many national & regional chain businesses & franchises.
Cibolo has a bright future & I plan to help provide the foundation for the future of our city & the vision to guide our community to new horizons that will make Cibolo the best place to raise a family in South Texas.