City Commission Approves Resolution No. 2419, to Levy a Property Tax Rate Exceeding the Revenue Neutral Rate

By Keeley Moree

On Tuesday, August 27th the Liberal City Commission addressed the following items during their regularly scheduled meeting:
Consent Agenda items (airport leases, Liberal Metropolitan Area Planning Commission meeting minutes) were approved by the Commission.
A revenue neutral rate public hearing was opened regarding the 2025 budget. Following the hearing, the Commission voted to adopt Resolution No. 2419 allowing the city to levy a property tax rate exceeding the revenue neutral rate. The vote provides City staff additional time to work on the budget before a proposal is brought to the Commission for final approval. Staff stated the intent with the 2025 budget is to reach an amount that is matching or below the 2024 budget dollars levied.
The Commission voted to approve a memorandum of water purchase agreement between the City of Liberal and Toro Green Fuels, LLC, for the sale of treated wastewater to support the establishment of a green hydrogen facility operated by Apex Clean Energy. The agreement is the first step towards further development of a proposed facility which would use on-site wind and solar energy generation to electrolyze treated wastewater to produce clean hydrogen fuel for use in agricultural, transportation, and heavy industrial manufacturing applications.
Commissioners also approved the Liberal CityBus program’s Title VI policy statement to support state grant assistance funds received for operations.
The next regularly scheduled Liberal City Commission meeting will take place September 10th at 5:30 p.m.