ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – It’s budget season in the City of Abilene, and our own Victor Sotelo sat down with Councilman Blaise Regan to pull back the curtain on how city leaders are working to pay the bills while saving taxpayer dollars.

Over the past week, the Abilene City Council has been deep in its annual budget meetings. According to Regan, the discussions have been productive and encouraging.

“We had a really good discussion on Monday. It was one of those days that kind of reaffirms my faith in democracy and government, because I think a lot of good things happen through discussion and kind of the debate and give and take and it was a very passionate discussion,” Regan shared. “My position is, I’ve been hearing a lot of pain from a lot of small business owners and a lot of residents on the increased appraisal values and the taxes that they’re paying… Now, every year, everyone complains about property taxes. There’s nothing new about that. But this year, over the last, I would say year and a half, it’s really been ratcheted up. It’s not just out, man that hurt. This isn’t just griping about it; this is the increased valuations have really been a make-or-break for a lot of businesses. There’s one I was talking to, they went from $3,000 in taxes last year to $19,000 this year. That’s a huge jump in one year for a business; you can’t budget for that amount.”

He emphasized that rising property taxes—especially due to increased appraisal values—have been a key concern among residents and business owners.

“We can only control a little sliver, but let’s do what we can to minimize that tax burden,” Regan said. “The initial proposal was raising the tax rate a little bit under the proposed budget… My position throughout the budget meetings was, No, we need a tax rate reduction. We need to give some relief where we can. ”

While the county handles appraisals, the city still has the power to adjust its tax rate to ease the burden. Initially, the proposed budget included a slight rate increase. But Regan pushed for relief.

“I want to offset that by decreasing the total overall property tax rate to give some relief to the small business owners and the residents,” Regan shared. “I was very happy that we got the tax rate reduction. If residents take one thing away from this, it’s that we were able to get that tax rate reduction because in large part, of all those large businesses that over the last 2, 3, 4 years, we’ve been working on bringing in.”

Another hot topic has been a potential permit system for BYOB (Bring Your Own Beverage) establishments. The proposal came in the wake of several violent incidents at a local lounge.

“Kind of a blanket over all of these establishments, exactly right. And so they proposed that to us at the last meeting two weeks ago, roughly, and the council had a lot of pushback on that. It was a very wide net. It was a very burdensome, and it felt like we were penalizing the entire city just for one potential mismanagement or bad actor, bad seed.” Regan explained. “We directed staff to come back this past meeting, and we discussed it again. We’re still exploring options, because we don’t know how many BYOB businesses are out there.”

While regulation is still on the table, Regan says the new idea centers more on limiting hours of operation — especially during late-night hours when problems tend to occur.

“Or maybe we don’t need to get any permit for BYOB at all. We just focus on the 2:00 to 7:00 a.m. and minimize the potential danger and shootings. Then by saying, Hey, you can’t operate after 2:00 a.m., hopefully that eliminates the problem. They’re going to come back to it next week with some revisions, and we’ll discuss it as well,” Regan shared. “We’ve had a ton of feedback from this, from wedding venues to the Expo Center to private businesses… It’s a wide-ranging variety of businesses that are really affected by this. So this is something that the council is really trying to do our due diligence, make sure we get it right the first time, so that we don’t screw it up and cost businesses money and time.”

Under the revised proposal, there would be no upfront permit requirement. Instead, if an establishment experiences violent incidents, they could be required to obtain a permit and follow enhanced safety measures, like hiring security.

The owner of the building tied to the recent violent incidents at the Sixth Street Center has broken his silence. He declined to be named but said the business hosting the events has been evicted.

“I want it back to a family-oriented, you know, like an event venue, like it was before. It’s a lot more work for us, you know, for weddings and quinceañeras and all that stuff, but only safe way.”

He also said events won’t be allowed to go past 2:00 a.m. going forward.

In the headlines:

Hemp Ban

Governor Abbott vetoed a bill banning all consumable hemp products with THC earlier this summer. He now seeks regulation, but some lawmakers say that’s not possible. Meanwhile, local businesses like House of Healing have received warning letters from Abilene Police over possible illegal sales. Owner Brittany Mansky says it’s a case of misunderstanding the industry.

“I think it’s more of the same thing, of the misunderstood industry, and what it is and what is considered legal versus illegal. We know what we have, and we know that we comply with all of the federal and state laws that we have in the state of Texas,” Mansky shared.

The La Hacienda House

A once-abandoned southeast Abilene home, nicknamed the “Big Green Monster,” is being revived. CWS Investments is now working to complete and remodel the massive structure.

Dyess Authorization Act

Senator Ted Cruz introduced the Dyess CDC Addition Design Authorization Act to expand child care facilities at Dyess AFB without needing new funding. The plan would integrate with existing base infrastructure.

Adult Education Shutdown

Due to a federal funding freeze, adult education programs across West Central Texas—including Abilene ISD’s—are shutting down. The director said they couldn’t operate with just 20% of their original budget.

Bringing Storm Sirens to Abilene

City leaders are revisiting the idea of bringing back storm sirens. The cost is estimated at $2.2 million, with no current state or federal funding available. For now, Abilene relies on CodeRED alerts sent directly to mobile phones