On May 20, 2025, the San Angelo City Council voted to shut down the opportunity for non-profit organizations to apply for Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) funding—three years after allowing such applications.
This issue began on August 2, 2022, when I attended a City Council meeting and asked for clarification on whether TIRZ funds could be used for non-profits. At that meeting, Mayor Brenda Gunter stated clearly that non-profits were not eligible because they do not pay taxes.
However, just two weeks later, on August 16, 2022, the Council passed a motion—approved by both TIRZ and the City Council—to combine the North and South zones into one unified policy. During that meeting, it was explicitly stated that non-profit organizations in the South were not eligible for TIRZ funding, except for government entities.
Yet, it was also noted that North Side non-profits could apply at any time.
Despite earlier statements, it is important to note that nothing in the Texas Comptroller’s regulations disqualifies non-profits from applying for TIRZ funds. The City Council knew from the beginning that non-profits like churches do not pay property taxes—yet they allowed them to apply anyway.
Gethsemane Church submitted an application on August 22, 2022. Over the following three years, the TIRZ board reviewed and approved the application. However, the City Council rejected it, again citing that the church did not pay taxes and therefore was not eligible.
I believe that is not a valid reason. The City Council knowingly opened the door for non-profits to apply—despite their tax-exempt status—and allowed the process to continue for three years.
On January 7, 2025, the City Council initially voted to approve Gethsemane’s application. Yet Mayor Brenda Gunter and Council member Tom Thompson continued to object, repeating the same point—that non-profits do not pay taxes.
At the January 7, 2025 meeting, Tom Thompson stated that non-profits should never have been allowed to apply and that he should have removed that provision back in 2017.
So, the question remains: Why did the City Council approve the process for non-profits to apply in the first place? If the tax-exempt status was always going to disqualify them, it was misleading—and a waste of everyone’s time and resources—to accept applications that were “dead on arrival.”
This isn’t about Gethsemane Church being denied funding. The real issue is that non-profits were encouraged to apply, and then ultimately disqualified for a reason that was already known when the process was opened. That, in my view, is gross negligence and a misuse of taxpayer time and money.
Gethsemane Church followed the process properly. Everything was done decently and in order.
I believe that now former Mayor Brenda Gunter and current Mayor Tom Thompson owe Gethsemane Church—and the citizens of San Angelo—an apology. This situation was mishandled from the start. An apology may never come, but I choose to forgive them for accepting applications that were never going to be approved.
It should not have taken three years to close the door on this process. Instead, the Council let it continue, giving the appearance that approval was still possible—when in truth, it never was.
—A concerned citizen who simply tried to do things the right way.
