The Brownwood City Council, during Tuesday morning’s meeting, approved on first reading an ordinance accepting payment by certain credit cards of fees, fines, court costs, or other charges, and collecting a processing fee and/or service charge for processing payment by credit cards.

The City currently absorbs all credit card processing fees for payments made by residents and businesses including utility bills, permits, fines, etc. Annual costs to the City for these transactions are predicted to rise to over $600,000 for the 2024-25 fiscal year and have become detrimental to the budget.

3.5% fee will be applied to payments made via online portals, in-person terminals, and phone transactions. Exemptions will include payments made via ACH or electronic check.

Texas law permits municipalities to charge a convenience fee if the fee is disclosed prior to payment and the fee does not exceed the actual cost incurred.

Also, Tuesday, Council approved on first reading an ordinance setting charges for fees, rentals, licenses and permits for the City of Brownwood for the 2025-26 fiscal year.

The Miscellaneous Fee Ordinance sets fees for almost all other City services not addressed in the Utility Rate Ordinance. Included in the fee ordinance are updated fee structures for the health permit fees to comply with Texas Senate Bill updates.

Currently, the City fee is $60 for a 5-day permit, while the State’s fee is $52 for a 14-day permit. In addition, yearly health permit fees are increasing from $150 to $215. However, the City will no longer be charging alcohol permit fees. Brownwood Municipal Airport changes include a $15 across the board adjustment for enclosed and shared hangars and a $5 increase for tie-down and hail shed hangars. These increases are to account for CPI while continuing to move the City closer to market rates for hangars. There is also a $1 increase per person for entrance to the Lehnis Railroad Museum and Visitor Center for groups of more than 15, from $2 to $3.

Council also on Tuesday approved on first reading the ordinance setting charges, fees, rates and deposits for customers on the Brownwood water, sewer and sanitation system for the 2025-26 fiscal year

The Utility Rate Ordinance sets rates for water, sewer, sanitation, and landfill services.

There is a 2.5% increase applied to the water base rate, average residential customer would go from $31.45 to $32.24. There is an 11% increase applied to the sewer base rate, average residential customer would go from $34.72 to 38.56. There is a 5% increase in the sanitation rate, average residential customer would go from $26.06 to $27.36.

The City is also proposing a $3 increase in the Landfill gate rate for out-of-city customers from $49 a ton to $52 a ton. This is an unplanned increase that became necessary when the County informed the City on Aug. 14 that they were discontinuing their Landfill subsidy of $8,400 a month, which caused a revenue loss to the budget of $100,800. There is a new proposed fee structure for brush brought to the Landfill for outside city limit customers, commercial, and large quantity generators only.

All of the aforementioned items will come before Council again for a second and third/final reading before officially being approved.