LCS: Palo Pinto County files proposed budget

Palo Pinto County filed their proposed budget for fiscal year 2020 with a proposed tax rate on Wednesday, July 31.

The proposed budget will raise $995,173, or 8.54%, more of property taxes than last year’s budget. Over $164,000 of that amount is taxes which will be raised from new property added to the tax roll.

However, the Commissioner’s Court noted that they normally set the proposed rate just below the rollback rate because they are still working on their budget and can always come down, but cannot raise the proposed rate if the budget requires them to do so.

The Palo Pinto County Commissioner’s Court is proposing a 5% increase to the tax rate in the proposed budget. The 2019 tax rate was $0.40 per $100 valuation and the proposed FY 2020 tax rate is $0.042 per $100 valuation. The breakdown has 0.3597 of the rate for the general fund and .0603 for the road and bridges fund.

The tax rate for Palo Pinto County has steadily risen from $0.352 in 2014 to the proposed $0.42. If the proposed tax rate is approved this would be the third year in a row the county has adopted a 5% plus tax rate increase.

For the rest of the story, see the Wednesday, Aug. 21 edition of The Graham Leader.