NEWS
Power or tax rates: Does it add up?
The questions come up almost every year when the City of Bowie starts debating its budget.
Why are electric rates so high?
Why can’t they be lower?
It was April 1991 when the City of Bowie decided to build its own substation. It was completed in 1992. The consensus of the city council was electricity use can be controlled by residents to some extent, while property taxes cannot.
So instead of raising taxes to take care of increased city operational costs, the council opted to adjust electric rates.
Through the ensuing years tax rates have rising slightly each year, but they have never caught up to electric revenue, which is the primary revenue generator for the city.
Utility revenue contributes $9.3 million to the city budget, while general fund revenue has $6.8 million revenue with $8.5 million in expenses.
Of that, $1.83 million is budgeted for transfer into the general fund to fund its operation.
General fund revenue includes ad valorem taxes, sales tax, franchise taxes, rents and royalties, fines and assorted other fees.
Ad valorem taxes are budgeted at $1,244,706 in the 2015-16 budget, while sales tax is budgeted at $1,459,299.
The Bowie News posed this question to City Manager Ricky Tow: What tax rate would be needed to make up for the utility fund transfer that goes to the general fund?
Read the full story and examine some hypothetical rates in your weekend News.
NEWS
Bowie Council meets June 23
The Bowie City Council will meet at 6 p.m. on June 23.
The agenda includes both old and new business items.
City Manager Bert Cunningham will make his report on the 2026-27 budget process, bid opening for the Glenn Hills lift station on July 16 and the bid for Rock and Pillar repairs.
In new business a pair of planning and zoning committee recommendations for replats at 107 E. Nelson and 412 Green will be reviewed. An ordinance adopting an office of emergency management amending a present ordinance will be offered.
Old business will see the second reading of the pickleball court reservation fee ordinance and the ordinance prohibiting drilling and mining or the reopening of an abandoned well or mine in any public park in the city limits.
NEWS
City of Bowie reports heat advisory today
A HEAT ADVISORY will be in effect from noon until 9 p.m. today (Thursday). Please plan accordingly.
Hear Audio Alert:https://hrpow.us/oeFZANN
NEWS
Sheriff confirms human remains found in Sunset area
Montague County Sheriff Marshall Thomas has confirmed human skeletal remains were recovered on June 13 in the Sunset area, and they could possibly be those of a flight attendant believed to have been murdered almost a year ago in the Fort Worth.
The murder suspect, Dennis William Day, 66, admitted in June 2025 to strangling Rana Soluri, 47, an Envoy flight attendant who lived with Day during that last year. She was reported missing by a co-worker on June 11 and had not been seen or heard from since March 2025.
Day initially denied any involvement, but later admitted to the murder and indicated he dumped her body somewhere in the Montague County area. Lawmen have scoured the areas in questions in both Montague and Wise County, but found nothing.
Sheriff Thomas said on June 13 the SO received a call of possible skeletal remains in the Brushy Creek area north of Poss Dyer Lane on Farm-to-Market 1749. A deputy went to the scene and confirmed it was human remains.
Investigators responded and kept the scene secure overnight until staff from the University of North Texas Forensic Anthropology Center could arrive and made the recovery on June 14. A Texas Ranger and staff from the Fort Worth Police Department also were on scene.
“There is no determination made yet on how long it has been there,” said Thomas. “The anthropologist was pleased to recover most of the skeleton in these conditions. Heavy rains previously made the past searches difficult. We are working jointly with Fort Worth to make an identification and if it is the victim in their homicide.”
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