The Monterey Board of Aldermen will consider a property tax increase to cover the matching funds required for a long-standing trail project.
Alderman Jamie Phillips said the town must find a way to pay for its portion of the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) grant, which is expected to cost approximately $220,000. Phillips said the current budget does not contain surplus funds.
“The easiest route to look at is a property tax increase to cover that grant,” Phillips said. “It would be my thoughts that we break it up and do it incrementally, part of it one year, part of it the next year rather than hit the entire city, do it with it all at one time.”
Phipps said a 10-cent tax increase would generate roughly $56,000 for the town. Phillips said a 20-cent increase would bring in $112,000, while a total 40-cent increase would be required to fully fund the grant match.
“If you’re looking at residential for every $100,000, it’s an increase of $50 for $100,000 appraisal value, and then commercial would be 80,” Phillips said. “Let’s say you have a $400,000 home, then it’s $200 a year more.”
The board also discussed the broader 2026-2027 fiscal year budget, which Phillips said is currently very tight. Phillips said officials had to ask department heads for budget concessions to address deficits across multiple accounts.
“We haven’t even addressed any of the requests from any of the departments because we actually had to have budget concessions this year, we had to ask departments to actually cut, because there was we were facing a huge deficit in every every account,” Phillips said. “Like I said we were looking at a deficit of $50,000 or $60,000 even with the utility, moving funding around.”