By JONATHAN SNYDER
Markle’s Town Council held its first reading of the 2025 budget in a special meeting Wednesday, with questions about tax rates and Markle’s assessed value at the forefront of the conversation.
Clerk-Treasurer Stephenie Hensley made some edits to the budget and tapped into extra areas, such as LOIT funds for fire and police equipment, to help ease the tax rate for the town. The general fund budget for the town comes out to $1,177,450 for 2025, a decrease of nearly $200,000 from last year’s fund.
The confusion came with the adopted tax rate portion of the budget. Council member Blake Caley noted that the adopted tax levy was $2,000 less than last year’s number, but that the adopted tax rate went from 1.100 in 2024 to 1.290 in 2025.
“These numbers don’t make sense to me,” Caley said to Hensley. “I know you’re saying that they (state budget representatives) give you that adopted tax rate … help me understand why when our adopted budget is significantly less than last year’s adopted budget as far as dollar numbers … but yet our adopted tax rate is significantly higher. I can’t explain that to my constituents when they say, ‘Why did you raise the Markle tax rate so much?’ when what I see is we’re spending less.”
After some investigation, Council member Nicolas Lund found that Markle’s assessed values were listed at $44 million down from $52 million last year. This caused Hensley and the council to believe that a calculation error occurred during the process. Hensley will contact the state budget representative today and get answers about the assessed values dropping and investigate the tax rate increase. Caley said that it’s not fair to see Hensley’s budgetary work in minimizing the adopted tax levy undone by a miscalculated tax rate.
“I’m excited that our need is down $2,000,” Caley “I feel like we’ve done our job, but that doesn’t jive with why the tax rate went up significantly. The tax rate should have gone down an equal percentage.”
Another reading of the budget is scheduled for the council’s Oct. 16 meeting. Other notable numbers in the budget include a lack of tax levy for the Parks fund and a $200,000 local road and bridge matching grant.
Additionally, the council held a public hearing on different improvements for drinking water in the town. Holly Miller of DLZ presented the three projects that Markle proposed to the state for SRF funding. These include improvements to the water treatment plant, replacing water mains on Lee and Sparks streets and looping the water main from the industrial park back into the town.
Operations Manager Mike Grant stated that the town was required to give a list of all the projects that they would like to see done, knowing that the town would not do all of them. Grant admitted that a wholesale building extension and filter replacement of the water treatment plant is highly unlikely, due to the high cost of that specific project. The Lee and Sparks streets water main replacements are still planned.
Furthermore, the town read a draft of an ordinance amendment regarding fees for water and wastewater-related utilities. Hensley and Grant stated that rates for water consumption, water meter size, treatment rate, collection system maintenance and tap charges are expected to go up approximately 30%. A rate assessment from Baker Tilly gave them the number, due to inflation and rising equipment costs. There will be no fee for leak adjustments, however.
“That’s strictly 30% from our last rate increase, which is mirroring inflation,” Grant said. “That’s not above and beyond, that’s just inflation. They (other communities) are all doing the same thing, they have to. Most people just think, ‘I pay taxes (on these).’ These are not funded by taxes, these are their own operating businesses that run off of revenue received, and we can’t run a business in the red.”
Grant also presented two quotes for widening the Novae Parkway and Ascher Drive intersection. Problems with truck traffic see a need to widen the intersection, according to Grant. TW Excavating had the low bid of $24,756, which was approved, while API Construction Corporation’s bid was over $10,000 more. Additionally, a pump failure for wastewater at a lift station on Miller Street saw the council pay $8,300 to replace both pumps, as they have reached the end of their usable life.
Additionally, Hensley and the council discussed discontinuing the Markle text alert service due to a lack of sign-ups from the community. Town Marshal John Markley, represented by Hensley, believes that the town is not getting their money’s worth for the service. The fee to continue supplying the service is $2,000 per year, with the invoice due on Oct. 31.
Council member Matthew Doss stated that while he sees the service’s advantages, it is not worth the cost if people are not using it. Further discussions, including data on how many people are using the service, will take place at the council’s Oct. 16 meeting.
jonathan@news-banner.com
