City of Montgomery officials presented their updated plan to address what was a largely ballooning tax burden on the former timeline of the Street and Utility Improvement Plan (SUIP) and other infrastructure desires.
What was looming as a tripling of city taxes has now been knocked down to between 125% to about 175% of the current city taxes, evening the burden out for many years but adding to the overall cost long-term.
Montgomery city officials held their first of three town halls regarding the updated Street and Utilities Improvement Plan (SUIP) and the long-term budget of the city, as well as gave more details about the new Memorial Park playground to be installed in 2026. Only two residents showed up to this first town hall.
The Rice County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, Dec. 9, approved the county’s 2026 budget and property tax levy, which increased by 8.51% over 2025. That’s slightly less than the preliminary figure approved in September.
While the $103 million budget is about $12 million lower than the current budget, the levy increase is largely due to cost shifts from the state, reductions in state grants and county program aid, the 2026 elections and higher personnel costs laid out in negotiated collective bargaining agreements.
The Tri-City United School District School Board voted on Monday, Dec. 22, to ask voters in the district again to pass the same $39.99 million bond that was proposed at the November 2025 single vote election. In November, the tax base that showed up to vote voted 926 in approval and 1,088 in opposition.
The $39.99 million bond for Tri-City United Schools was rejected by voters in the Nov. 4 election despite $7.982,004 being covered by the state Ag2School Tax Credit.
Tax impact on a $400,000 residential property would have been between $10.12-$10.66 a month.
The three precincts voted in total 926 (45.98%) in favor and 1,088 (54.02%) opposed.
Lonsdale voted to pass with 311 in favor and 269 opposed.
Tri-City United School District has created a website to better showcase the items they are asking for in their $39.9 million dollar bond to be voted on Nov. 4 this year. People can visit sites.google.com/tcu2905.us/ref25/home or go to the district’s regular website, tcu2905.us, and click on the link on the rolling front page banner.