With Kyle’s new mayor and city council in place after Saturday’s election and Kyle’s longtime city manager run off and the finance director out, Kyle’s taxpayers need to get ready for some whopping tax increases. There is now nothing to hold back this reckless and free spending juggernaut.
Kyle’s elected officials are beholden to the political chattering class of Old Town Kyle for getting them elected. So where is the new $5 million plus library going? It’s going in the far southwest part of Kyle, barely in the city limits, and in Old Town Kyle, of course. Over $500,000 of infrastructure improvements are needed to make the site usable and accessible. A free site with good access is available in Plum Creek near the Performing Arts Center which is convenient to all Kyle library users. But the puppets on council paid over $200,000 for the Old Town Kyle site. And, did you notice that word, “free?” That’s a bad four letter word to these free-spenders when there’s taxpayer cash to burn through. And, over $700,000 was squandered to fix up the old City Hall and $500,000 will be spent tidying up the Depot. Please, no more “revitalization”; just fix our sewer and drainage problems and give us sidewalks.
The mayor and council ran off City Manager Tom Mattis for obscure reasons and they paid him almost $300,000 to leave. Mattis has qualities that will make him sorely missed as Kyle stumbles into $100 million of debt and a runaway $36 million annual city budget. Mattis has a financial background; a real spreadsheet kind of guy though a little short of charm, but he, with departed finance director Charles Cunningham, kept this bunch focused on budgets, tax rates, debt service, and other such boring stuff. Adios, the responsible grownups are gone and it’s now party time at City Hall!
The irony is that the new neighborhoods of Plum Creek, Hometown Kyle, Silverado, Spring Branch, Steeplechase, and Four Seasons pay the lion’s share of property and sales taxes while the Old Town Kyle crowd is loaded with seniors who have frozen taxes and over 65 exemptions. But, now, everybody, get ready for higher taxes.
Jerry Kolacny
Old Town Kyle Resident
