County budgeting begins; Property values rise again
HAYS COUNTY
Editor’s Note: This is the first of two articles examining the county judge’s recommended budget for Fiscal Year 2019 ahead of the Hays County Commissioners Court’s budget work- shop meetings. The Hays County Commissioners Court received the county judge’s recommended Fiscal Year 2019 budget last week and has started its budget workshops. The first workshop was this past Tuesday, and a second workshop is scheduled for Tuesday August 14.
The initial budget, which was created by County Judge Bert Cobb, Chief of Staff Clint Garza and the county auditor’s office, is subject to revision but reveals the requests that have been made and what the planners decided should be granted.
Garza has said the budget balances to the county’s current tax rate and initial property valuations. The adopted tax rate for FY 2019 — 44.5 cents —- is the same as it was in FY 2018, but home valuations have increased. In 2018, according to county figures, the average home value was $227,086, while this year the average home value is $243,787. That means that even with the same tax rate, the property taxes on the average home will go up from $988.28 in 2018 to $1,062 in 2019, according to the county.
Figures released along with highlights of the recommended budget show how property valuations have increased in recent years; in FY 2016, the average home value in the county was $195,655, or more than $48,000 less than the average value for FY 2019. In that same time frame, average property taxes have increased almost $200.
The budget includes $2 million for capital equipment replacement, $142,000 for repairs to early warning system low water crossing equipment, $196,000 for capital asset upgrades and — the largest expense category — more than $4.7 million for personnel, including salary increases, fringe benefits and new positions.
Of the personnel spending, $1.8 million will go toward market salary increases for law enforcement positions according to collective bargaining agreements, and another $935,000 will go toward a 3 percent merit pool for employees, department heads and elected officials. A full $2 million will go toward new positions and personnel changes, though that is less than half of the amount of personnel requests received during the creation of the recommended budget.
Personnel requests, including allowances, insurances and other benefits, amounted to $5.4 million. The district attorney’s office had requested $528,512
— mostly for new personnel, including seven new administrative assistants, a victims assistant coordinator, an investigator, two felony attorneys, a new civil case attorney and a new misdemeanor attorney. The recommended budget grants one new administrative assistant, a victims’ assistant coordinator (whose position is 80 percent grant funded), one new felony attorney and a $5,306 attorney progression per pay plan, for a total of just over $162,000.
The county’s juvenile detention center submitted $181,700 in personnel requests, including four new juvenile supervision officers and a salary progression plan. The salary progression plan was included in the recommended budget, but the new officers were not.
The recommended budget also does not include two requested animal control officers that would have cost $30,992 or a requested salary increase of $3,096 for the assistant veterans court coordinator. No requests for salary increases for staff in the Justice of the Peace Pct. 1.1, 1.2, 3 or 4 offices were granted, either. Requests from each of the county’s constables for pay increases of about $26,000, to $93,824, also were not included in the recommended budget.
The Hays County Sheriff’s Department had requested $328,500 in personnel expenses, including two patrol deputies, a new evidence specialist, four new emergency communications officers and five position re-grades. The recommended budget does grant the sheriff’s office one of two requested repeat offender program deputies, one of two requested K-9 unit deputies, a new administrator to handle warrants and a new records manager, for a total of $116,500.
The largest personnel request — and the largest personnel expense — is for jail operations. The county jail is undergoing an expansion and, the county says the larger facility is expected to be open by the end of 2019. Personnel requests totaling more than $1.4 million were made for jail operations; the total granted in the recommended budget is $666,438. Details of the jail’s personnel requests will be included in the conclusion of this twopart series on the initial county budget for FY 2019.
The first county budget workshop was held Tuesday, August 7, and Commissioners are scheduled to hold a second budget workshop at 10 a.m. on Tuesday August 14, on the third floor of the Hays County Courthouse. A final draft of the county budget will be up for approval in September.