"I solemnly swear . . ,"
Mayola Lasater

Aledo resident Mayola Lasater takes place on board

By Albert D. Villegas
The Community News
WEATHERFORD — One of Mayola Lasater’s first acts as a newly sworn-in Weatherford College Place 6 trustee recently was to approve a preliminary 2007 tax rate on behalf of the school for residents, an amount that was lowered compared to last year.
She fullfilled an unexpired term by former trustee Roger Grizzard, who resigned earlier in the summer.
The first public hearing on the proposed tax rate is scheduled Aug. 16 at noon in the Mince Administration Building; a second public hearing is scheduled Monday, Aug. 20, also at noon. The Board of Trustees will approve the tax rate and adopt the Fiscal Year 2007-2008 budget on Thursday, Aug. 23 at 5:30 p.m.
Lasater, an Aledo resident, who was sworn in during an Aug. 8 regular meeting, will be able to explain to her constituents how WC has plans to lower its tax rate from $0.1138 to this year’s proposed $0.1053, which would be broken down by $.0970 for maintenance and operations and $0.0083 for debt service.
“This would allow for a budgeted increase of approximately $720,000 in tax revenue dollars for maintenance and operations based on a 100 percent collection rate; it would be the fourth consecutive year for WC to lower the tax rate,” WC Vice President of Financial and Administrative Affairs Andra Cantrell said during a meeting that lasted two hours.
According to WC, it means that a resident who paid $121 for an appraised home worth $106,000, can expect to pay in 2007 a total of $119 for a home appraised higher at $113,000.
For more on this story, see the Aug. 17 issue of The Community News.