WASHINGTON CO. COMMISSIONERS TO HEAR ECONOMIC UPDATE
Washington County Commissioners will hold their next regular meeting on Tuesday.
The first major order of business will be Brenham | Washington County Economic Development’s quarterly update, followed by the presentation of a memorandum with the results of 2023 tax phase-in compliance. There will then be a quarterly report provided by the Information Technology Department.
In action items, the court will potentially accept a request for qualification (RFQ) for a wildlife manager for Washington County’s school land in Tom Green County. Commissioners went out for RFQs on January 16th, with County Judge John Durrenberger saying at the time that since the county is now dividing the usage of the land between grazing and hunting, the wildlife manager would assist with the hunting aspect of the land.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners will consider:
- A proposed change to the existing agreement between the county and Brannon Industrial Group for the annual spring cleanup event labor. The agreement change includes an increase for the 2024 annual rate to $9,000.
- Appointing Bryan Ruemke to represent Washington County as chairman of the Washington Volunteer Firefighters Association Board.
- A participation contract between the county and the Texas Emergency Services Retirement System on behalf of the Washington County Firefighters Association.
- Renewal of a state agency memorandum of understanding between the county and the Health and Human Services Commission for use of facility space at the Health and Service Center at 100 South Chappell Hill Street in Brenham.
Commissioners will meet Tuesday at 9 a.m. at the Washington County Courthouse.
The “Swamp” is here in Washington County!
Well the good news in this report is that we the people have a chance this very month and next to have a chance at the transparency we so desire. If your not happy with the leadership and you want a chance for change give the other guy or gal in this case a chance what do have to lose and look what you have to gain? Good reporting MSickntired thank you for you efforts. Truth takes time but it always comes out. Now if we could only get to the bottom of the helicopter the EMS and the 100 plus grand a year pay scale which is in some cases 350 percent higher than normal scale??????
Thanks Steve! It only took about an hour of my life to look up the public information and then do a little math and use common sense. What bothers me is most people don’t question these people we elected. There isn’t enough people that ask WHY. For every decision they are making for “We the people” we have the right to ask why.
And for your statement on the helicopter and EMS situation, challenge accepted!! 🤔
The subject of Washington County Schools owning land in Tom Green County (San Angelo) comes up often. The land that “we, the tax payer” own in San Angelo is now in need of a wildlife manager. Because you (county commissioners and the county judge) deemed it to be necessary due to the land being leased out for grazing and for people to pay to hunt on Washington County’s land. Is that correct? So now that person will be getting paid a salary to maintain the land I assume? I wouldn’t think that anyone would go and donate their time to do such a task. It got me to thinking, Wow how much land do we own over there? So I looked it up: tomgreencountytx.gov and then went to the property valuation link. I was impressed! Washington County Schools own 11,639.677 acres clear across the state. Then I looked to see just how much that was worth. Boy I tell ya, that was impressive too. The total market value is $13,820,620.00. That’s Thirteen Million-Eight hundred twenty thousand-six hundred twenty bucks! Then I took it a step further, Washington County (tax payers) paid Tom Green County for the 2023 tax valuation a whopping $44,413.10 for the property taxes. Which was paid from the Washington county general fund.
Here’s my questions and concerns:
1. How did we obtain the land? Was it gifted to us? Did we purchase it?
2. The land is being leased out to cattle owners for grazing and now for hunters to hunt game, How much are we earning per lease?
3. Does our property taxes (school tax mainly) that we pay each year, pay the tax bill from Tom Green County?
4. Since “We” the tax payer own this land that is going to be used for hunting purposes, where do I sign up to go hunting? What are are hunting? Deer? Quail? Dove?
5. Are there any county officials or school employees getting to partake in the use of the land? If so, what are the rates that are being charged?
6. Why are we hanging onto this land? Selling this property for market value would have put a huge dent into School Bond issue. Maybe if we were asked to vote for lower amount it wouldn’t have failed twice? Just a thought.
7. What is the annual salary for the Wildlife manager? With that much land and there being enough game to be hunted, I would think that you would need to higher more than just one person to maintain everything. How many employees you thinking? At what cost?
Transparency means a lot to the public. We have a right to know how the money we pay for property taxes is being allocated and who it is benefiting. Especially when you put something out for Request For Qualification or Request For Bid. All these decisions are made for us by county officials while we are busy working to earn those tax dollars.
Ha ha “You can’t handle the truth “
Impressive reporting! Thank you.
Thank you for doing the research and bringing this to the attention of Washington Co tax payers. I am shocked that we own so much land that is worth so much, and in turn, are paying taxes on it. Now the commissioners want to hire a wildlife manager ?? If we just sold a small portion of the property, this “in debt” school district could pay off its bills. build a new school and increase teacher pay !! Seems to me that this whole thing may have been mismanaged in the past years. ‘ MSicktired’ has some great facts and even better questions to be answered. Now let’s see if anyone has a logical answer to all of them ?? I, for one, would like to hear the whole story on this.
Thanks Ray.
Agree. Why do we have it? Seems ridiculous. Sale the land. Give the teachers a raise. Fix some issues at the Junior high. Also, that thought of a fancy scoreboard that cost so much is just wrong.🙏 for some common sense!
Thanks Carol
Actually, with the land being ag exempt taxes should not be that high and the income that this land brings in is a no brainer to keep it, it’d be interested to see the $numbers of income vs cost to clear up any arguments.
royalties are paid to the county in oil and gas leases, hunting rights and grazing rights on land that the county owns free and clear of debt.
selling this would be like a person how has a large house that is paid for, but they sell it so they don’t have to pay taxes but turn around and now rent the same house from the new owners for 1500 or 2000 a month. now their are losing more money a yr. than if they would have just paid the taxes.
Early Texas government did not have lots of money but had a lot of land. Each county was given four leagues of land to use for public schools a long time ago around 1840s.
I guess use of this land has been discussed more than a few times since then?
The Texas Legislature granted land in West Texas in the 1800’s for school districts to utilize for future use. The county acts as the administrator for these properties on behalf of school districts. Most counties and school districts have sold their land over the years. These are the same school districts that constantly belly ache about school funding and how they need more money. Guarantee you, Washington County sells the land, gives that to Burton and Brenham ISDs, in 5 years, they will still not have enough money and will not have this annual revenue stream in the future- ever.
I can agree with that statement about it never being enough money. When the constant want for “new”out weighs the need for “updating” there is never enough money.
How much is the revenue for this property annually after taxes and all other expenditures that number would help the citizen of Washington County under stand why we have it.