Commissioners approve 5% tax revenue increase

The Hays County Commissioners Court set the new property tax rate Tuesday at 0.4212.

The new rate will raise 5.18% more revenue for the county than last year, resulting in an additional $4,619,577. Of the new revenue, $4,396,386 will come from new properties.

Of the 42.12 cents per $100 of taxable property value, 26.78 cents will go towards the General Maintenance and Operations, 12.46 cents will go toward General Debt and 2.88 cents will go toward Road and Bridge Maintenance and Operations.

Residents may wonder how this tax rate is possible after Texas Senate Bill 2 recently capped revenue increases at 3.5% before requiring voter approval. The disaster declaration is what has allowed the county to increase revenues up to 8% without voter approval, as the policy was prior to SB2.

The commissioners also approved the salaries and allowances for elected officials, which show no salary increases proposed.

In other business, the commissioners voted to accept the $293,426 grant award from the governor’s Criminal Justice Division for Prevention and Preparedness Response for COVID-19 to fund more janitorial supplies, personal protective equipment supplies and medical and safety supplies to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The commissioners authorized the submission of a Community Development Block Grant - Mitigation Project application to acquire matching funds for a modeling project of Purgatory Creek.

They also passed an extension of the grant contract with Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC) for the Regional Padilla Compliance Pilot Project to March 31.

For one year now, the grant has provided support to criminal defense attorneys in Hays County and across the 3rd Administrative Judicial Region who are counseling clients whose immigration status could be affected by a conviction.

The Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission recently recommended extending the grant to provide the service to more counties that do not have Padilla services.