John Hawkins
County tax rate set at 67 cents
by By David Rupkalvis
(Posted 8/18/2009 05:05 pm)
Young County commissioners voted unanimously Monday to set a maximum tax rate of 67 cents per $100 in assessed valuation but promised the final tax rate would be lower.
The vote established the maximum tax rate the county will be allowed to assess and set the tax rate just below the rollback rate.
“We don’t adopt a budget at that rate,” Precinct 1 Commissioner John Hawkins said. “It just gives us wiggle room.”
“That is correct,” County Judge Stan Peavy III said. “We can always go down, we just can’t go up. We can change it back down to the rate to fund our budget.”
Peavy explained that the current proposed budget has a rate of a little less than 64 cents, but there are a few items outstanding such as a quote on medical insurance. The final budget will be voted on Sept. 14, and the final tax rate set one week later.
“There’s no way to establish a tax rate without total expenditures,” Hawkins said. “But you have to have a figure to start with.”
Precinct 2 Commissioner John C. Bullock said he could support the tax rate as long as commissioners promised to reduce the rate on the final vote. He said too often in recent years, the county has set the higher rate and left it unchanged.
“Everyone remember,” Bullock said after the vote.
Commissioners discussed the budget for more than an hour but made few changes.
“I’ve been through this several times,” Hawkins said. “There is some discretionary spending that we could cut, but I don’t think we want to cut it.”
Peavy said the only likely change would be in the insurance fund when a final quote is received.
“We’ve had some health care claims we weren’t expecting, so we might want to have some room in health-care reserves,” Peavy added.
After commissioners chose not to give pay raises in 2010, the biggest increase in the budget is an increase in the county’s portion of the retirement fund. After the fund lost 28 percent in the stock market last year, commissioners have increased the county funds being put into the fund from 8 percent to 13 percent.
“We could put it off for now, but I don’t think it changes the fact we need to do it,” Hawkins said. “You don’t want to work here for 20 or 30 years and find out you don’t have retirement.”
In 2010, the county is required to put 9.36 percent into the fund, but with future projections showing the county portion could reach as high as 18 percent, commissioners chose to add additional money immediately to lessen the future hit.
“You have to hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” Peavy said.
The additional money will cost $112,000 in 2010 and continue in the future.
“I was going to come back and talk to you about a lump sum contribution once we got closer to the end of the year and we know how much cash we’ll have left,” Peavy said. “I think we need to do it.”
Precinct 3 Commissioner Stacey Rogers also asked commissioners to consider their options when looking at the tax assessor/collector’s office in Olney.
“We’ve got to get someone in that Olney office,” Rogers said. “I feel it’s the county’s obligation to provide that office and not disenfranchise the citizens of Olney by making them drive to Graham.”
The Olney office is currently open three days a week to allow residents to register and get titles for vehicles.
“I can’t keep anybody over there,” Tax Assessor/Collector Nancy Thomas said. “For the responsibilities they have, for $10 an hour we can’t keep them.”
In Thomas’ budget, $13,500 was set aside for part-time help for the Olney office. Thomas said adding a little extra money might help her find the right person.
She said she wanted to open the office from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily to make the position worth 30 hours a week. Reaching 30 hours would enable the employee to receive county benefits which could make the position much more appealing.
“I believe there’s money there for 25 hours a week,” Rogers said. “I think they would stay for 25 hours.”
Peavy suggested some changes be made, saying he preferred a higher salary over offering benefits.
“If this had been something going on for six months, that would be one thing,” Peavy said. “But this has been going on for 17 years.”
Rogers said many of the complaints he has heard have not centered around the number of hours the office is open but rather the chosen hours.
“To get people satisfied, they have to work from 12 to 1,” Rogers said.
But Thomas said the problem for 17 years has been finding and keeping help. She said she gets applications, hires and trains employees but once they move to Olney and begin working on their own, it is often just a short time before they quit.
“I just don’t think you’ll get anyone to stay unless they get benefits,” Thomas said. “That’s the key — benefits.”
Rather than make changes, commissioners told Thomas to post the opening with the Texas Workforce Commission and offer the post for $10 an hour for 25 hours a week.
