WASHINGTON CO. COMMISSIONERS APPROVE BUDGET & TAX RATE

  

Washington County Commissioners voted unanimously today (Tuesday) to adopt the county’s new budget and levy the same tax rate as last year.

The balanced budget includes $43,885,950 in disbursements and consists of $36,032,187 for the general fund, $7,435,063 for the road and bridge fund, and $418,700 for debt service. 

The previous adopted budget accounted for $45,004,482 in disbursements.  While the new budget is lower, it will raise $1,337,966 in additional property tax revenue, up 5.2 percent from the prior budget.  Of that amount, $770,850 is revenue raised from new property added to the tax roll this year.

Click here to view the budget. (Note: as of the time of the article's original posting Tuesday morning, only the proposed budget filed on August 13th was available on the county's website. The final adopted budget has since been made public and is now included here.)

Commissioners then approved levying the property tax rate at $0.3840 per $100 valuation.  While the overall rate is unchanged from a year ago, it increases the maintenance and operations (M&O) allocation from $0.2940 to $0.2975.  At the same time, the road and bridge portion will decrease from $0.0823 to $0.0790, while the interest and sinking portion will also drop from $0.0077 to $0.0075. 

The no-new-revenue rate was $0.381614, and the voter-approval rate was $0.403091.  Based on higher property values, the adopted rate will increase the average homestead’s tax payment by $109.73 and is effectively a 4.11 percent increase in the tax rate.

Click here to view the public hearing notice for the tax rate.

No comments came from the public on either the budget or tax rate, and overall discussion was brief.  The only commissioner who spoke was Candice Bullock, who said there was a lot of work that went into this budget and that there were some “hard choices to make.”  She thanked members of the court, county staff, department heads and elected officials for working together to “come to a consensus” on the budget.

At the end of regular session, commissioners moved into a public meeting for the Pecan Glen Road District, approving an order levying taxes for the road district at $0.297725 per $100 valuation.  The tax only applies to residents in the Pecan Glen subdivision and is used to support road upgrades in the district.  The new rate is listed as the voter-approval rate, but it is lower than the no-new-revenue rate of $0.308024 and the past rate of $0.33407. 

Click here to view the small taxing unit notice for the Pecan Glen Road District tax rate.

Also at today’s meeting, the court:

• Authorized the sheriff to purchase upfitting for five Chevrolet Tahoes using $111,985 in Senate Bill 22 funds granted to rural law enforcement agencies.  The upfitting will be done through Pro-Fit Outfitters out of Navasota.
• Voted 4-1 to accept a request for qualification for professional architectural services from PlanNorth Architectural Company.  The services are for the former ATS Irrigation building at 2509 Highway 105.  Commissioner Don Koester voted against, saying after the meeting that he does not feel the company is not qualified, but he was not satisfied with the company’s choice of HVAC system at the new Road and Bridge building.
• Approved an increase in pay for election workers hired for the November 5^th election.  All election judges and alternates, the central counting station manager, and tabulators’ pay will go up from $13 to $15 per hour.  The pay for early voting and election day clerks will bump up from $11 to $13 per hour. 
• Approved presiding judge and alternate judge appointments for the early voting ballot board.