Hot on the heels of the Dallas City Council passing its $5.3 billion budget, the Denton City Council voted Tuesday to pass a $2.37 billion budget. 

The new city budget includes increased property taxes and utility rates, including water, electricity, wastewater, and solid waste. 

Some residents spoke out against the increases, arguing that people are struggling with rising costs.

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“These people right here will not stop spending — too many special interests and too many people with their hat in hand,” said Charles Lee, a resident of Denton. “You got to organize and strip these people and tie their hands and stop spending and put new people in there. People have to organize and stop this.”

The Denton Record-Chronicle reports on the new budget and increases. Here’s the start of the story:

The Denton City Council voted Tuesday night to approve a city budget of more than $2 billion, a property tax rate increase and more utility rate increases.
The approved budget totals about $2.37 billion, up from the previous year’s $1.95 billion.
The rate increases come at a time when thousands of homeowners have been contesting high appraisal values in a city where the average home value is nearly $400,000, according to a presentation by city staff Tuesday.
The property tax rate increase will mean an additional $291 a year for the average residential property owner, according to the city.
Based on the newly approved tax rate of 58.542 cents per $100 property valuation, the owner of a home with the average taxable value of about $380,000 will pay $2,223 on the city of Denton portion of their property tax bill for 2025, compared to the $1,932 assessed on a home with the average value of about $345,000 this year.
The city’s current property tax rate is 56.0682 cents per $100 valuation.