Coryell County commissioners propose lower tax rate, publish proposed budget

By LYNETTE SOWELL 

Cove Leader-Press 

At Tuesday’s meeting of the Coryell County commissioners’ court, the commissioners took a unanimous record vote to propose a tax rate of 48.31 cents per $100 valuation, a tax rate decrease of 4.8 cents, or 9.8 percent. 

According to Coryell County Judge Roger Miller, this is the lowest tax rate since 2016. 

However, the tax rate will still raise an additional $403,251.31 in revenue due to new property added to the tax roll. Although there’s new revenue added to the rolls, the county is projecting about $429,000 less in property tax revenue compared to the 2021 budget. 

The rate proposed is the “no new revenue” tax rate. The current tax rate is 53.11 cents per $100 valuation. Another rate that the county officials could have proposed would be the “voter approval tax rate” of 55.72 cents per $100 valuation, which would have triggered an election for voter approval. 

For fiscal year 2021, the debt rate was 3.388 cents per $100 valuation, which is looking at a decrease for fiscal year 2022, to 2.877 cents per $100. The maintenance and operations tax rate for 2021 was 49.7 cents per $100, which is dropping to 45.433 cents per $100.

County debt for fiscal year 2021 was $3,488,416, but for 2022 the county is looking at a debt of $3,048,506. 

The county is projecting a total of $9,923,703.26 in property tax revenue, along with an estimated $2,800,000 in sales tax revenue. For fees, the county is projecting $982,500 from the county clerk, county attorney, county courts, district clerk, the county tax assessor, as well as the constables’ offices. The county is also projecting $490,000 in fines to be received via the county court and district courts, as well as the justices of the peace. 

With those revenues, fees and fines, along with other revenues and reimbursements, the county is looking at a total of $17,034,525.74 in revenue for the upcoming fiscal year. Minus the projected expenditures of $20,641,45.41, the county is looking at a deficit of $3,606,619.68. 

To offset this, the county intends to use part of its $8,959,034 in projected fund balance at the beginning of the fiscal year, leaving the county with $5,352,414.32 as a fund balance. 

The jail fund – which was a noted part of the budget during the time leading up to the special election in May 2021 – is seeing an increase in the next fiscal year, to $1,767,500, up from the current year’s budget of $1,175,000. Thus far in the fiscal year, the county has spent $822,404.76 to house its overflow jail inmates in other counties. 

The county has published its proposed budget at coryellcounty.org, and scrolling down to “Review” and Proposed 2022 budget. It can also be found here https://www.coryellcounty.org/upload/page/8964/2021/20210815140202633.pd...