County budget, tax rate proposed
By Melinda L. Lucas
Following a series of budget workshops over the past month, Shackelford County commissioners met in a special session on Tuesday morning, Sept. 8 to propose a deficit budget for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 and a tax rate that promises to raise “no-new-revenue” (NNR) for the upcoming tax year.
The only part of the proposed budget that was discussed Tuesday morning was increasing county employee salaries by three percent, accounting for an additional $70,000, including retirement, Social Security, and Medicare costs.
With the salary increase, the expense side of the budget totals $4,302,971, $69,128 more than last year’s adjusted budget, while a projection of revenues is $4,185,420.
The deficit of $117,551 will come from the county’s fund balance, although county judge Robert Skelton commented that the entire budget amount is rarely spent, and the income forecast is “on the conservative side.”
The budget was proposed on a split vote with the motion by Steve Riley, seconded by Lanham Martin. Ace Reames and Skelton also voted in favor, while Cody Jordan voted against the proposal.
Skelton commented that commissioners had worked to trim $64,000 from original requests by department heads.
In addition to the $70,000 in salary increases, the budget includes $25,000 for the constable’s office, which has been vacant for several years. Xavier Perez has indicated that he is running as a write-in candidate for that office.
A $9,000 time clock system to provide real time reporting of hours worked, which will eliminate the current handwritten time sheets, and lease payments for maintainers and sheriff’s office vehicles also increased the budget.
The I&S tax rate of 7.77 cents to pay debt service and the M&O rate of 55.15 cents, for a total rate of 62.92 cents, were proposed in separate motions at Tuesday’s session.
The 62.92 cents is the NNR rate, formerly known as the effective tax rate.
The commissioners plan to adopt both the budget and tax rate at their Sept. 28 meeting.
