First county budget proposal would require tax increase

Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2020 last week. Last week, the county held the first of three scheduled budget workshops.

Becerra’s original proposal included several changes, such as a $3 million allocation for new personnel at the sheriff’s department and county jail, the removal of five positions in the County-Wide Operations department from the budget, a 2% cost of living adjustment and 1% Merit Pool for Employees and Department Heads.

Becerra said that additional liabilities had to be addressed in the FY 2020 budget, such as new equipment and the staff for the jail expansion and public safety buildings that were voter approved as part of the county’s 2016 bond.

“When all of the budget requests were submitted, I was presented with a budget,” Becerra said. “We were over budget by $22.7 million. After estimating additional revenues, and approving a one-time use of reserves for capital projects and equipment purchases, I managed to reduce the budget by $15.3 million to maintain the current tax rate.”

Though the proposed budget maintains the current tax rate, effective tax rates will still increase due to property valuation increases.

“I seek to challenge — again, in a positive way — challenge our commissioners court to identify opportunities and commitments to reduce the budget by an additional $5 million to lessen any further tax burdens to our citizens,” Becerra said.

Tax rate

Becerra’s proposed budget keeps the current tax rate at 43.37 cents per $100 dollar valuation of property, or at the same rate as FY 2019. However, valuation of property will increase, so that the average home value in FY 2019 of $243,787 will increase in FY 2020 to $264,651. This means that the average home’s county-based property tax in FY 2019 was $1,035.62, but in FY 2020 it would increase to $1,126.11 if the court can’t find enough saving to reach the effective tax rate.

Becerra said he intends for the proposal to be a starting point, and hopes that commissioners can work to maintain the effective tax rate as to avoid an increase in taxes.

“My goal is the effective tax rate, which is 40.51 cents per $100 valuation of property,” Becerra said.

Motions at the

workshop

Only one official motion was made at the first budget workshop.

Officials voted 3-1, with Becerra opposed and Precinct 4 Commissioner Walt Smith absent, to reinstate four positions to the budget and remove one position from the County-Wide Operations Department. Precinct 3 Commissioner Lon Shell, who initiated the motion, expressed his concern with the proposed dissolvement.

“I’d like to give them some confidence that we are going to work together to try to find ways to accommodate the effective tax rate if possible,” Shell said. “That’s always our goal, but not at the stake of people who are providing extremely important services to this county and are saving this county money.”

Becerra said the proposal was meant to be an opportunity to relocate the positions.

“I am recommending, suggesting… that we simply offer the opportunity for them to move to another department, not the black and white image that is possibly portrayed,” Becerra said. “I have a stronger interest in relocating them to shift around for efficiency’s sake.”

This motion reinstated the director of countywide operations, criminal justice analyst, operations coordinator and a part-time grant writer, and eliminated admin III from the budget. This change will add an additional $310,054 back into the budget.

Projects and Assets

Becerra’s proposed budget would provide approximately $718,000 for the expansion of flood warning system and $256,000 for fire weather mapping and live flood response prioritization software. Additionally, around $872,000 are allocated for equipment for the expanded jail and public safety buildings.

District Attorney’s

requests

The District Attorney’s office requested funds for new personnel and equipment which totaled $1,428,018. In his proposed budget, Becerra proposed $525 for computers/ software and $17,841 for an attorney salary progression plan, totaling $18,366 for the requested positions and equipment.

At the budget workshop, Criminal District Attorney Wes Mau presented to the court and said that by the end of July, the district courts will have tried more jury trials than it did for most of the previous 10 years in their entire 365 days. This year, two new courts were added to the county, which increased judicial capacity by approximately a third, according to Mau.