Waller County adopts budget and lowered property tax rate

By R. Hans Miller | News Editor
Posted 8/27/20

The Waller County Commissioners Court voted Wednesday to approve a property tax rate of $0.616662 per $100 valuation. The court also adopted a budget of about $39.4 million which is an increase in …

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Waller County adopts budget and lowered property tax rate

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The Waller County Commissioners Court voted Wednesday to approve a property tax rate of $0.616662 per $100 valuation. The court also adopted a budget of about $39.4 million which is an increase in the overall budget from last year’s approximately $34.1 million according to county records.

“What we are passing is what’s called a – it used to be called an ‘effective rate’ budget – but now it’s a ‘no new revenue’ budget,” said County Judge Trey Duhon. “We are not raising any additional revenue from previously-existing properties. This budget, in effect, nullifies any increases in appraisals that have occurred over the last year.”

Even though the tax rathe has been lowered by about 4.5 cents per $100 value, the county was able to increase revenue overall due to improvements to properties that added to overall base value. Those who have had static property values will receive a lower property tax bill this for this year, a press release from the county said.

“The tax rate in Waller County has not been this low since at least 2003 – maybe before that,” Duhon said.

The 2021 budget will allow the county to add ten new employees, the press release said. Precinct 4, near Katy will see five staff directly assigned to the area with one staff member for the county clerk’s office and a tax office representative both housed at the nearly open Precinct 4 Annex near Brookshire. One new jailer and two bailiffs will also be added for the district court at the annex under the Waller County Sheriff’s purview. Countywide – an investigator will be added to the fire marshal’s office, a truck driver to the Road & Bridge department and one environmental staff person. A part-time clerk of court position will be converted to full time as well.

Salary increases in the county are very limited with department heads across the county being asked to curb their budgets to ensure the county is in good financial standing. Only a few maintenance crew members and a court coordinator received pay increases outside of longevity increases under the new budget. County Commissioners, while acknowledging the contributions of all county employees, said that, barring special circumstances, no salary increases were appropriate given the state of the county and nation’s economies.

“There’s a lot of people that work for the county that are probably worth more than they’re making right now,” Precinct 4 Commissioner Justin Beckendorff. “(But), we’ve all made a commitment this year … to hold the line, not do any new spending and hold all salaries.”

Beckendorff and Precinct 2 Commissioner Walter Smith had voted against the court coordinator’s pay increase but were outvoted by the other members of the court. Both stated they believed she was worthy of a raise, but it was not necessarily appropriate or fair given that most other county employees were not given an opportunity for pay increases.

In addition to staffing increases and a lowered tax rate, the budget also allowed the county to add $500,000 to the Road & Bridge department’s budget. With more paved roads per capita than most Texas counties, maintaining roads is a priority for the county as it develops court members said in recent meetings.

Law enforcement also gets some additional consideration with WCSO getting an increase of $193,000 to provide eight new fleet vehicles under a lease program with Enterprise and an additional $100,000 for overtime for WCSO staff.

Adding a $100,000 line item for park planning and maintenance will allow Waller County to complete its planning process for a formalized County Parks Plan later this calendar year, the press release said.

“This tax rate delivers on the promises we made in 2017 – that when we passed the $39.5 million jail bond, that with new revenue and growth, that we would work hard to quickly get back to lowering the tax rate, which we did every year from 2015 until 2018. And when coupled with the tax rate reduction in 2019, the tax rate we adopted today gives us a tax rate that is actually lower than what the tax rate was prior to voters approving the jail bond, fulfilling that promise and accomplishing that only two years after incurring the jail bond debt,” Duhon said via the press release.

Duhon also pointed out that the county’s new justice center and Precinct 4 Annex are both on budget and ahead of schedule.

Duhon said the county was very fortunate to be in the financial position that it is given the economic impacts of COVID-19 and competition with nearby counties for economic opportunities. He had also asked that $20,000 be allocated to the county’s economic development program to keep the county’s financial future on good footing.

“We’re very fortunate based on where we are financially and the fact that we are not reliant on sales tax that we are probably better situated to hopefully withstand the storm than most – so that we’re not in a position like some entities where they’re having to let go of people because they can’t make budget,” Duhon said.

The Waller County Commissioners’ Court meets Wednesdays at 9 a.m. at the Waller County Courthouse in Hempstead. Meetings are currently being held virtually, including the public comments portion of the meeting. Login information for the meetings can be found at https://www.co.waller.tx.us/page/Public.Notices.

Waller County, Trey Duhon, Justin Beckendorff, Walter Smith, Precinct 4