KILLEEN, Texas — The City of Killeen is giving you the chance to speak up about proposed fee increases in our community during the upcoming 2025 Fiscal Year, which begins Oct. 1.
While deciding the increases, the city compared its structure with surrounding cities like Waco and Lubbock in order to deliver what you need in your community.
Judith Tangalin is the Executive Director of Finance for the city.
“The services that we are providing, you know, the cost of the staff, the cost of equipment or any maintenance from those services,“ Tangalin said.
The fee schedule is broken down by departments citywide, from animal services and sewer services, to police and fire and everything in between.
But with increased fees comes the need to offer a period of public comment.
To find out what that means for you, I met with Tangalin to have her break down the new fee schedule.
After previous jumps in residential water fees, she said any future increases must first be put before you – the voter.
“If we have increases in residential water we'll have an ordinance and will probably present it to the public in July around that time frame," Tangalin said.
Some of the biggest proposed changes involve the Killeen Convention and Civic Center, which features a new stage.
“The current amount doesn’t have no amount—it's because we didn’t have one before. We only have one size now. We have different sizes, we were able to reduce the cost for the smaller sizes but also increase a little bit for bigger sizes," Tangalin said.
For aviation to replace ID cards, the proposed amount is $100.
And at the Stone Tree Golf Course, the fee covering tee times for 18 holes of golf is proposed to go up just $1.
Under parks and recreation, the water aerobics classes will still cost $40.
Lady Jones Collins, who uses a lot of what the city has to offer, told me keeping things affordable is important for her and her neighbors.
“You would have a bigger turn out if its more affordable. Because again the elderly are in, the sick are in, they have CNAs that need to take families different places, they have children that have disabilities as well," Collins said. "So when things are not affordable you don’t get a big turn out.“
