County to hold hearings on budget, tax rate

Submitted by Cameron1 on

Milam County Commissioners will hold two public hearings on the proposed budget and tax rate.

The hearings will be at 9 a.m. Aug. 30 and Sept. 5 at the Milam County Courthouse. The two sessions are for public feedback only there will be no explanations of the budget.

The Commissioner’s Court has proposed a three-cent increase in the 2018-19 county tax rate to 73 cents per $100 of valuation.

County Judge David Barkemeyer said there was considerable debate among the court this time on whether to raise the tax rate at all or to leave it at 70 cents, and they were almost equally divided on the issue in a column earlier this month.

He said he would accept all the blame for the proposed 2019 budget containing the three-cent increase. 

“I had already asked the commissioners to each accept $125,000 less in their portion of the ad valorem tax revenue for next year, so in effect contributing a total of $500,000 - $125,000 x 4 - to the general fund side of the county budget to make up for the loss in tax revenue due to the Luminant closing,” he said.  “The argument from one of the commissioners was that they each give up as much as it would take, which would be about $215,000 each, or some $850,000 total to make the General Fund budget work out without having to increase the county tax rate.  It was my opinion that this would put too much strain on our road program in the county, particularly in certain precincts.”

Barkemeyer said he believes that the taxpayers need to support keeping our precincts doing as much as possible to keep our county roads maintained during this budget crunch, rather than significantly cutting back in some areas and/or overly depleting reserves.

General fund departments have cut budgets over $300,000 to help cover the revenue losses as well.  To balance the general fund budget, the county is building in the $900,000 reserve that they anticipate carrying over from 2018.  

Community Communication meetings to explain and discuss the proposed 2019 county budget and tax rate will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 23, in Rockdale at the One Stop Center; and Tuesday, Aug. 28, at the Milano Fire Station.  A video of the judge’s presentation will be posted on the county website at www.milamcounty.net.