Coryell County commissioners, judge propose tax rate

By LYNETTE SOWELL 

Cove Leader-Press 

The Coryell County Commissioners and Coryell County took a record vote on Aug. 13 to propose a tax rate and budget for fiscal year 2024-2025. 

The record vote on the property tax rate was for a rate of $0.473700 per $100 valuation. 

The rate was not proposed unanimously by the commissioners, by a vote of 3-2. 

Commissioners Kyle Matthews and Scott Weddle voted against proposing the tax rate of $0.473700, and Commissioners Keith Taylor and Ryan Basham, and Coryell County Judge Roger Miller voted in favor of proposing this tax rate. 

The proposed rate is higher than the current year’s tax rate of $0.373280. 

It is also higher than the calculated no-new-revenue tax rate of $0.365250, which is the calculated rate that would bring in the same amount of revenue as the current fiscal year. 

However, it is less than the voter approval tax rate of $0.473760.

The proposed tax rate contains two portions, one for Maintenance & Operations of $0.428460 and a Debt Rate of $0.045240.

For the next fiscal year, the total amount of county debt stands at $8,333,936, down from 2024’s debt amount of $9,126,105.

The proposed county budget with this tax rate would bring in $4,393,452.91 more compared to last year’s budget, a 33.24 percent increase from last year. 

New properties added to the county tax roll will increase the property tax revenue in the amount of $499,865.

Altogether, with property tax revenue, sales tax revenue, and other revenues, the county projects to bring in $32,062,799.37. 

As it stands as of Aug. 15, projected expenditures total $38,894,091.93 in the budget, with the county entering fiscal year 2025 with a fund balance of $12,913,339, and with the released budget draft, would end fiscal year 2025 with $6,392,046.44 in reserves. 

This rate and budget have not been approved or adopted by the commissioners. 

There is still a public hearing to come regarding the tax rate, which will take place on Thursday, Sept. 5, at 9 a.m. at the Coryell County commissioners’ court. The meeting will take place at the County Commissioners Courtroom, located at 800 Main St., Suite A, in Gatesville. 

A copy of the proposed budget draft as published by the county on Aug. 15 can be found at: https://www.coryellcounty.org/upload/page/8964/FY25.pdf.

The next fiscal year starts on Oct. 1, 2024.