Here comes the county budget

Considering how gloom-and-doomy the reports have been, this is downright sunny.

Commissioners Court today will consider a $1.4 billion budget that cuts spending by about 3.2 percent from the fiscal year that ended on Feb. 28.

The spending blueprint does not call for a property tax increase or layoffs. The court will set the property tax rate in September.

Nor should the average county resident detect a change in government services, county budget officer Dick Raycraft said Monday.

Other than the reduction in funding to the Sheriff’s department that we’ve been talking about, it’s not clear from the story how the proposed savings is going to happen. There’s “a number of initiatives in the works” to reduce the jail population but no specifics as yet, there’s the proposed new cremate-first policy that would enable the county to delay purchasing more land for cemeteries, and there’s a future consideration of eliminating car allowances. I’m glad if that’s really all it took, but it feels like we’re missing something.

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2 Responses to Here comes the county budget

  1. Bill says:

    Does anyone else think it is ironic that if the county will have to spend money changing the name of the Tax Assessor Collector’s office, again, after the 2010 election for the 3rd time in less than 2 years. I hope they spell it right “T-R-A-U . . . .”

    Gives new meaning to the term “manana accounting.”

  2. Joe Stinebaker says:

    Charles: Some of the major areas from which the savings are coming include personnel – no new positions, no filling of vacancies, and no pay raises of any type for any county employees – as well as a ban on all out-of-state travel and postponements of building projects. Specific cuts within departments are, for the most part, being left up to the department heads.

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