Coryell County commissioners approve tax rate, budget for fiscal year 2023

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

The Coryell County Commissioners approved the budget and tax rate for Fiscal Year 2023 during their meeting last Tuesday.

After lengthy discussion following a public hearing, the budget was approved in a record vote of 4-1, with Commissioner Kyle Matthews voting against.

The budget will raise less revenue from property taxes than last year’s budget, with a decrease of 1.4 percent or $213,102. The property tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll is $394,162.

The tax rate for 2022 was $0.483100 per $100 valuation, which was the No New Revenue Tax Rate. The tax rate that commissioners approved for 2023 is $0.399940 per $100 valuation, which is less than the No New Revenue Tax Rate calculation of $0.409940 per $100 valuation.

“This tax rate is, in fact, a reduction over previous years,” Miller said.

In the county’s General Fund budget, fiscal year 2023 has a total projected revenue of $17,801,112.09, with total expenditures of $21,014,119.98, leaving a deficit of $3,213,007.89.

The county has a beginning fund balance of $9,574,670 and will have an ending fund balance of $6,361,662.11.

In the Undivided Road and Bridge Fund, the fiscal year 2023 budget has $6,188,301.49 in revenues and $6,141,057.26 in expenditures. This fund has a beginning fund balance of $46,081 and an ending fund balance of $93,325.24.

Other funds include the Law Library Fund, Records Management, Courthouse Security, Court Reporter Service Fund, LEOSE Training Fund, the Technology Fund, the Child Abuse Prevention Fund, the Interest and Sinking Fund, the Capital Improvement Fund, the County Fire Department Fund, the Pre-Trial Diversion Fund, the Hot Check Collection Fund, Vehicle Inventory Tax Interest Fund, the Seized/Forfeiture Fund, Heart of Texas Auto Theft Task Force and the Mental Health Deputy Fund.

Also included in the budget is the “American Recovery Act Fund”, which accounts for the $7,932,233 in funds that the county received in Fiscal Year 2022 in American Rescue Plan Act funds, of which funds have been transferred to the General Fund, the Road and Bridge Fund, the Capital Improvement Fund, the County Fire Department Fund and the Mental Health Deputy Fund.  

The Mental Health Deputy Fund previously had received funding from the MHMR (Mental Health/Mental Retardation) Services for Fiscal Year 2022, but there is no amount budgeted from MHMR for Fiscal Year 2023. The Mental Health Deputy Fund had $618,958.71 in total revenues for Fiscal Year 2022 with $564,207.83 in total expenditures (budgeted). For Fiscal Year 2023, the Mental Health Deputy Fund has $144,843 in revenues (from ARPA funds) and $373,243 in expenditures, leaving a deficit of $228,400.72 that will be covered by the fund balance, leaving an ending fund balance of $9,257.28 for this fund.

New to the budget is the Grant Support Fund, which has $500,000 budgeted for Fiscal Year 2023. Of that amount, $200,000 is budgeted for contract services, $250,000 is budgeted for Professional Fees and $40,000 is budgeted for miscellaneous expenses, leaving $10,000 in the fund balance. Commissioners have been in discussion with Natural Resources Solutions, L.C. over the past several Commissioners’ Court meetings regarding grant opportunities for the county, especially dealing with low water crossings, water infrastructure, etc.

The Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the tax rate. Commissioners also voted to approve the collection of a County Clerk Record Archive fee of $10. This fee is for the preservation and restoration services performed by the county clerk in connection with maintaining a county clerk’s records archive on public documents designated by the county clerk as part of the records archive.

Commissioners also approved the appointment of election judges and alternates for 2022-2023.

The complete budget and tax rate calculation for Fiscal Year 2023 can be found by visiting the county website https://www.coryellcounty.org/ and finding the section titled Financial Transparency and then to FY Approved Budgets which will take the reader to the posted budgets for Fiscal Year 2023, back to 2014.