Ho. Co. Commissioners Adopt FY 2022 Budget, Tax Rate

By Will Johnson

Messenger Reporter

HOUSTON COUNTY – The Commissioners Court of Houston County adopted the county’s financial blueprints for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 during a regularly scheduled meeting held on Tuesday morning, Sept. 14.

After disposing of several routine matters, Houston County Judge Jim Lovell opened a public hearing on the county’s proposed tax rate – $0.53 per $100 of property valuation – for FY 2022. With no one speaking for or against the proposed rate, Judge Lovell closed the hearing.

The next item on the agenda pertained to the adoption of the FY 2022 Houston County budget. Several budget workshops had been held on the items contained within the county’s financial plan and with no discussion, a motion to adopt the budget was made, seconded and unanimously approved.

Before continuing, Lovell commented, “Our (county) auditor (Melissa Jeter) has worked tirelessly on this budget and I thank her very much for all the work she has done to assist me as the budget officer on our budget.”

The proposed budget and tax rate are based on Houston County property valuations of $1,624,272,326, broken down by $1,618,447,522 of 2021 certified values and $5,824,804 of 2021 rolling stock values.

The tax rate for FY 2021 was $0.532. Using the FY 2022 $0.53 proposed rate and a collection rate of 98 percent, the county could expect to receive $8,436,470.46. Using the no new revenue rate (formerly known as the effective rate) of $0.51709, the county would generate $8,398,868.56. Using the voter approval rate (formerly known as the rollback rate) of $0.53743, the county would generate $8,729,245.55. Using the de minimis rate of $0.54926, the county would generate $8,921,429.45.

The de minimis rate is the sum of a taxing unit’s no-new-revenue maintenance and operations rate; the rate that, when applied to a taxing unit’s current total value, will impose an amount of taxes equal to $500,000; and a taxing unit’s current debt rate.

The tax breakdown shows of the $8,436,470.46 generated by the $0.53 rate, an amount of $6,027,428.36 would go to the county’s general fund, with $1,293,310.92 going to the road and bridge funds while $1,115,731.18 would go toward the debt service fund.

Once the budget was approved, the next item on the agenda was to adopt the FY 2022 proposed tax rate of $0.53 per $100 of property valuation. The rate is comprised of a maintenance and operations (M&O) rate of $0.45991 and an interest and sinking tax (I&S) rate of $0.07009.

A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to adopt the FY 2022 tax rate of $0.53.

Following the approval of the tax rate, the county judge informed the court the budget will raise more total property taxes than last year’s budget by $294,906 or 3.74 percent, and of that amount $90,759.27 is tax revenue to be raised from new property to the tax roll this year.

In other matters brought before the court:

The commissioners approved the minutes from previous meetings.
Budget amendments were approved.
The payment of bills and expenses incurred by the county was approved.
The court approved salaries for new and/or transfer employees.
Donations from Bob Reeves and Gary Johnson were accepted by the court.
The FY 2022 TxDOT RAMP Grant for Airport Maintenance was accepted by the commissioners.
The court approved an event permit for St. Francis of the Tejas Catholic Church for a peaceful assemblage on Oct. 3 walking around the courthouse square while displaying signs within the Respect Life agenda.
Rental and use agreements with the Crockett Civic Center were approved by the court for jury selection for District Court on Sept. 14; for the County-Court-at-Law for jury selection and jury trial Oct. 12-14; for the County-Court-at-Law for jury selection and jury trial Nov. 8-12; and for the County-Court-at-Law for jury selection and jury trial Dec. 13-16.
The FY 2022 Archival Plan for the Houston County Clerk’s Office for records management, preservations and archives was adopted by the court.

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].

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