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I recently read with interest a letter in your Letter to the Editor portion of your newspaper ascribed to Jacklyn Gardner of Perrin regarding the county’s process of building an annual budget.
This is a good time of year to look at these matters and talk about how this really works. Our county’s annual budget is prepared in much the same way as in the other counties in Texas. Jack County, like the others, always attempts to follow the guidelines and requirements set forth in the statutes on such matters.
We are currently in the early stages of budget preparation for the coming fiscal year. That process is not secret and it is quite transparent. Copies of the proposed budget and the adopted budget are filed each year with the county clerk and, in recent years, are posted on the county’s internet site (jackcounty.org) for all to see. The process goes something like this: The county judge solicits proposed departmental budgets from each department including the four county commissioners. As those are presented they are used to prepare the proposed budget including the projected income and expenses of all county funds. Except for the first couple of annual budgets I filed, the proposed budget is, more or less, a wish list which includes even an estimated tax rate to fund the wish list. The budget proposals by the four commissioners are placed in the proposed budget exactly as they are given to me. Then in session of commissioners court, all four commissioners and me sift through the proposed budget to obtain a budget that then reflects what is reasonably necessary for their next year’s operation. In those sessions, the county judge is instructed by the court on items to add or remove or adjust in the proposed budget. This process continues until a final budget is adopted and approved by the vote of all five members of the commissioners court along with a property tax rate to raise whatever additional income is needed for that year to balance the budget allowing offsets then for income and use of cash reserves out of the commissioners’ funds and the General Fund. Over the 36 years that I have lived in this county, I believe each of the commissioners has received the same amount annually to operate their precincts. I have served with 11 different commissioners and they have ultimately always decided this was fair and voted to do it this way. Certainly there is some merit to this in that each time the U.S. Census is done, the county has to take a fresh look at the lines of the four commissioner precincts and tries to keep the number of citizens in each about the same. So the budget funding is about the same annually per capita.
If the four commissioners feel this division is unfair, they can certainly vote to do it differently. My understanding of what needs to be done in a road precinct basically comes from them. In that, they are my teacher and I am in school all the time. So, you see, what the judge may (or may not) think on that subject amounts to only one vote; not enough to decide how the rock or the remainder of their funds are distributed. Each commissioner receives the same amount of money and in the budget process they each decide how they spend their money. If you look at their individual budgets, one can see they are each different. They can choose even to spend all of their money for that year on road materials or new equipment. For that matter, they can decide not to spend any on rock or fuel if they want. Perhaps not a wise decision but still under Texas law it is their choice subject to the restrictions of law, the amounts given to spend, and the vote of their constituents. Our commissioners do a pretty good job with what they have to spend but I am sure they could always use more funding. As citizens, we might like to see them do more. To do that would require more money. If that’s what people want, they can vote to do it. The money to operate the county precincts comes from very few sources. Most of the funds used to operate the county road system come from the Road and Bridge Fund. That fund gathers some income from the collection of various fees usually connected to vehicle registration and title transfers. The rest of its income is from a special property tax. Last year 58 percent of the income there came from property taxes paid. The commissioners have on a number of occasions used part of the balance of this fund to add funding to the precincts to offset damages by floods and wear and tear. This fund is set up to pretty much serve as a “pass through” each year from it to the individual precincts. Part of the income in this fund is generated out of the fuel taxes we pay at the pump. Though the price of gas changes, the amount going to counties is the same as it was in the 1950s when the tax was created. All of the rest goes to the State. Now that is something we should all talk to our legislators about. Counties talk to them every session about this inequity, but so far to no avail regarding cash dollars given us. The county gets some money from the state in what we call the “Lateral Road Fund.” Income there is very limited by use and amount and has been about the same amount every year. That funding has primarily been used for right of way acquisitions or extraordinary road expense. It has traditionally been used only as a “rainy day” fund. It looks inviting but can be depleted very quickly in just one or two right of way acquisitions. The budgetary restraints on local governments in Texas are such that they can seldom spend more than is necessary to stay the same as the year before. And perhaps that is good of us as taxpayers. But because of these restraints, we must remember as citizens of Jack County that local government is always trying, like you, to use it up and wear it out rather than add to the expense of our operations. Our system of government is built upon the balance of power. No one person on your commissioners court has the power to do anything in and of themselves regarding the budget. Not a commissioner and not the county judge. It takes all five of us, or at least a majority of three to do anything. Our forefathers thought that was a pretty good way to do things, and I still do. |
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