The Hill County Commissioners Court continued discussing the county budget during a Tuesday, August 4 meeting before proposing a tax rate for the coming year.
Commissioners proposed adopting the no-new-revenue rate for the general fund, which came to $0.398576 per $100 valuation, while setting the FM lateral (road and bridge) portion of the tax rate to $0.069314, its voter-approval rate.
The no-new-revenue rate is the tax rate that would generate about the same amount of property tax revenue as the previous year from properties taxed in both years, taking changes in taxable property values into account. The voter-approval rate is the highest rate a taxing unit can generally adopt without asking voters for approval.
The combined total proposed tax rate across both funds is $0.467890. That is an increase of about 3.4 percent over last year’s county tax rate.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Martin Lake initially made a motion to propose the voter-approval rate for both the general fund and FM lateral, saying that the county is getting behind every year and the Texas Legislature may further limit its ability to raise taxes next year.
“Five years ago my road graders were $280,000,” Lake said. “Now they’re $550,000.”
Brassell said that he was not in favor of raising taxes. “The economy is tough,” he said. “Fuel is $4, groceries are high and I have a real hard time raising taxes.”
There was no second to Lake’s motion, and Precinct 2 Commissioner Larry Crumpton made a motion to adopt the no-new-revenue rate for the general fund and the voter-approval rate for FM lateral. That proposal passed, with Lake voting no.
Commissioners will take a final vote on the proposed rates at a future meeting as the budget process continues.
Tax Assessor-Collector Krissi Hightower presented this year’s tax calculations to the court, saying that at the no-new-revenue rate, the tax levy in the general fund would amount to $23,599,450. At the voter-approval rate, the tax levy in FM lateral would be $4,644,663, giving commissioners an additional $781,000 to split four ways and use on county roads.
Hightower said that even without a tax increase, the county is bringing in about $3.5 million more than the amount the voter-approval rate would have brought in last year thanks to new construction in the county.
Commissioners also held a budget workshop as Brassell wrapped up work on a proposed budget for the coming fiscal year.
The judge said that it was not financially possible to grant all of the requests submitted during recent budget workshops, although he started the process by plugging all of them into the budget to see what the numbers looked like. “Needless to say, we were in the red,” he said.
He said that the 6 percent cost-of-living adjustment proposed for employees was not feasible. The number is likely to end up around 3.5 percent, in line with the Consumer Price Index.
The court also discussed a need to cap longevity pay, which Brassell introduced last year to reward employees for staying with the county. Auditor Amy Peavy said that last year the county paid $254,600 in longevity pay, with one individual receiving $9,200. That number is expected to continue to increase, with the payout projected to be $279,000 next year.
The court is expected to revisit the policy at an upcoming meeting and implement any changes next year. The discussion led to a proposal for a $4,000/20-year cap on longevity pay and changing the payout date to the anniversary of employment rather than paying out all employees on the same date.
Elected officials’ salaries were also on the agenda, as the court has to set those numbers separately and publish them each year if there is an increase.
Brassell suggested no increase for elected officials, focusing only on employees this year. County Treasurer Rachel Parker cautioned against closing the gap between elected officials and employees, explaining that the purpose of the county’s salary studies in recent years was to get positions at the correct pay scale. Those adjustments resulted in elected officials receiving substantial pay increases at one time, which she said could be avoided in the future by keeping up with cost-of-living adjustments.
After discussion, the court voted to propose no pay increase for elected officials, with the exception of constables and justices of the peace.
County constables requested an increase in pay to be in line with the pay of a sergeant at the sheriff’s office during budget hearings. That change would have taken them from approximately $65,000 per year to $85,000. Brassell said that he did not make that change, but he proposed raising them to $70,000.
That proposal led to a proposed change for justices of the peace, which currently make $3,000 more than constables. Their proposed pay will now be $73,000.
The court will continue discussing elected officials’ salaries during a special meeting Wednesday, August 12.
Commissioners also voted to replace the county’s sick pool, which allows employees to voluntarily donate paid time off hours, with a short-term disability plan. Parker told the court that the sick pool creates liability for the county as she and other committee members are not medical professionals who can make accurate determinations.
The court voted to offer a short-term disability plan through Guardian to all employees and use the 3,000 hours currently accrued in the sick pool to pay for the switch. The cost of the added benefit will be approximately $71,000 per year.
The court was scheduled to have another budget workshop during a regular meeting scheduled for Tuesday, August 11, before meeting in a special session for elected officials’ salary discussions Wednesday, August 12.
The Lakelander 