NO PUBLIC COMMENTS ON NEW COUNTY TAX RATE
No one spoke during the first of two public hearings on the tax rate increase at this morning’s County Commissioners meeting. Commissioners approved a proposed tax rate of 52.11 cents per $100 valuation at their August 18th meeting. That is an increase on nearly six cents from the current rate of 46.26 cents.
The tax increase became necessary after the county acquired emergency communications from the City of Brenham in a service exchange. The move will take full effect on October 1st. The second opportunity for public input on the new tax rate will be next Monday at 5:15pm at the county courthouse.
In other action, the commissioners heard a report from Brian Gross of the law firm Linebarger, Goggan, Blair, and Sampson, who is contracted by the county to collect delinquent court fines and fees for Justice of the Peace precincts 2 and 4. He reported that the two precincts have over 4.1 million dollars in delinquent fines that dated back to the 1970’s. In the past year, the firm had mailed out over 18 thousand letters and had made 4800 phone calls to collect these fines. So far, they have collected just over a half million dollars in delinquent fines. Gross noted that a large percentage of these notices go to people who live outside of the county.
The commissioners also approved a 1 year service contract with Voice Products Service for the maintenance of a recording system in the interview room at the Sheriff’s Department. Claude Free, Captain of Operations, stated that the new recording system is a big improvement over the old system they had that was pieced together with various manufacturer’s equipment. Free said that often prisoners are willing to talk, but are reluctant to provide a written statement.
The new system allows them to provide a DVD of the interview to the District Attorney and the court. The recording system is utilized not only by the Sheriff’s Department, but also by the DEA, DPS and the Brenham Police Department.
The Commissioners presented two Proclamations this morning. Donna Culliver and Alesia Whaley of Adam’s Angel Ministry accepted a proclamation recognizing September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Culliver presented each Commissioner with a gold ribbon pen as a reminder of childhood cancer. This Friday has been named Childhood Cancer Awareness Day in Washington County.
The other Proclamation was presented to Brenham’s Lifetime Learning in recognition of Washington County Read. This year’s book is titled “One Amazing Thing” by Chitra Divakaruni. Readers will have a chance to meet the author and hear a dramatic reading on October 17th at Unity Theater. For more information, go to lifetimelearningbrenham.org
.