Residents speak out on proposed Coryell County budget, tax rate

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press

On Sept. 5, several Coryell County residents spoke up about the proposed tax rate and budget for Coryell County during a public hearing held by the Coryell County commissioners.

One resident spoke about the budget, calling it “bloated” and asked for the reasoning behind that perception. Others called for meetings like this to be held during the evening hours, when more could attend. The discussions that took place extended the time of the meeting, as more addressed the court regarding the budget.

At one point, motion was made by Place 1 Commissioner Kyle Matthews to not adopt a budget, which was seconded by Place 3 Commissioner Ryan Basham, after which discussions continued.

Commissioners took a record vote to not accept the budget as proposed, with all four commissioners siding against County Judge Roger Miller.

With that, the commissioners could not take any action to adopt a tax rate. The commissioners’ consensus was that they were “close” but not there yet as far as having a budget they were ready to adopt.

Prior to the vote, Coryell County Judge Roger Miller explained the reason for some of the increased budget expense numbers.

‘We have had some increased expenditures that are outside the control of your government, if you will. Our health insurance premiums went up significantly this year. Our property liability insurance policy that we carry through the Texas Association of Counties went up significantly this year. And in conjunction with the premiums going up, our deductibles under that policy have increased as well, based off some of the losses that have been reported in the county,” Miller said.

“Of course, we have expenditures within the judicial system. I think our board of judges are doing a tremendous job in trying to prosecute and address legal cases as quickly as possible. And that's tied to our inmate population, both in the county and out of the county. We did see an unanticipated increase in our jail population this past year, and we have projected expenditures based off what we experienced this past year.”

Miller also said the county was adding new positions, and likewise defended retaining the Emergency Management Coordinator position, with a $50,000 salary.

There are 10 new positions, with three of those being funded with grant funds out of Senate Bill 22, so at this point, it is not a direct cost to the taxpayer, Miller said. With the emergency management position, he said that emergency management coordinator (EMC) falls under the county judge. He said he hadn’t filled the position, but not for it to go away, but he intended to expand those responsibilities. He said that the EMC is required to attend many meetings locally and regionally, and is part of every school district’s security council in the county. Not funding that position would comparatively only save one-fifth of a penny, Miller added.

“So from my standpoint, and it impacts me directly, it would be a decreased level of service to the county. What we would be saving from a financial standpoint, I think we're losing tremendously in the services that we would be providing the county.”

Place 2 commissioner Scott Weddle further explained addressed the tax rate along with increases in the proposed budget.

“It sounds really good to lower taxes, to keep taxes the same. This county had a very deflated rate for several years, and unfortunately, I think we all got used to that,” Weddle said.

“Obviously, whether we like it or not, inflation has eaten us all up, including every single one of our employees, their personal budgets. …The biggest increase in this budget this year is definitely salary increases. The biggest part of our operating cost is employees.”

Weddle said that office clerks make $25,000 to start, which works out to be about $12 per hour.

“I think anybody in this room would look at that and go, ‘Ah, that's not even near a living wage, especially for single family mother, single family father, even a young couple. So, we had to address that, and we raised all of the clerk's salaries to $31,000 starting pay, which is right around $15 (hourly).”

This also meant that other employees who had been there longer would receive salary increases in proportion.

Weddle said that last year the budget addressed the sheriff's department and raised the sheriff’s deputies of $45,000 starting minimum, and that over the last three years the court has been trying to play catchup for employees.

This week and the past several weeks’ meetings come on the heels of the Aug. 15 special meeting, during which the commissioners and county judge took a record vote to propose a property tax rate of $0.473700 per $100 valuation.

The record vote to propose this rate passed 3-2. Commissioners Kyle Matthews and Scott Weddle voted against; commissioners Keith Taylor and Ryan Basham, and Coryell County Judge Roger Miller voted to propose this tax rate.

The tax rate is more than 10 cents 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 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.

Projected expenditures total $38,894,091.93 in the original proposed 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.