The Hill County Commissioners Court approved the proposed 2026-27 county tax rate and budget in a meeting held Tuesday, September 1.
Commissioners adopted the no-new-revenue rate for the general fund while increasing the FM lateral (road and bridge) portion of the tax rate to 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 on 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 adopted tax rate across both funds is $0.467890 per $100 property valuation. That is an increase of about 3.4 percent over last year’s county tax rate.
Hill County’s adopted budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1 calls for nearly $39.63 million in expenditures, supported by approximately $39.37 million in projected revenues and existing fund balances.
The county enters the new fiscal year with about $10.86 million in combined fund balances and is projeted to end the year with approximately $10.60 million, a decrease of about $263,000.
The budget includes a 3.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment for county employees. Prior to the meeting, commissioners had asked County Judge Shane Brassell to revisit the proposed budget to see if an additional 3.5 percent raise would be possible on top of that adjustment.
The judge said that he looked into the numbers and did not find the additional raises a financially viable option. He also noted that the change would have “completely destroyed” the county’s pay scale, which has been restructured to include appropriate gaps between positions within a department.
After discussion, the court voted to adopt the proposed budget without the additional raises.
In other action, commissioners appointed Tim Weyland to serve on the Emergency Services District (ESD) 1 Board of Directors, observed Governor Greg Abbott’s order of special election for the Texas Senate District 22 seat and approved sheriff and constable fees for the coming year with no changes.
Commissioners voted to set contract services fees for the sheriff’s office at $35 per hour. Brassell said that other entities sometimes ask the sheriff’s office to provide off-duty deputies for traffic control or other duties, and fees have not been formalized for the service other than employee pay. Brassell said that a filmmaker is planning to film in the county and has requested deputies to block roads. The fee will cover vehicle and fuel costs.
The court accepted a donation from Anker, which provided three portable field battery packs to Hill County Emergency Management. The packs can be used to charge devices on the scene of emergencies.
A contract was approved with Kalibrate in the amount of $7,500 for location mapping used to attract new business prospects. The county previously used another company for the service, which provides information about how many potential customers are in the area to prospective businesses.
The court also approved a contract for a rural ambulance service grant received by ESD 2 that will fund another ambulance to serve the county and approved submission of a grant application to the state for funding to assist with the county’s feral hog bounty program.
Commissioners also declared a state of disaster due to the number of recent wildfires and extended the county’s burn ban through October 31, unless it is lifted before then. See accompanying story in this edition for more information.
The Lakelander 