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County discusses budget

Tue, 08/24/2021 - 6:24 pm

On a morning where Jack County Judge Keith Umphress had thought commissioners might approve the fiscal year 21-22 budget, commissioners weren’t quite ready to finish the job.

In a two-hour budget discussion that reconvened after press time, commissioners continued discussing where to make changes in the $6.5 million budget.

The budget Umphress gave to commissioners had a proposed tax rate of $0.5438 cents per $100 valuation. The budget will raise an additional $391,562 in property taxes. New property added to the tax roll will be $53,164.28 from last year’s budget.

The county will also pay off the last two years of debt of the law enforcement center, taking $965,000 out of reserves to eliminate the LEC debt and leave the money with no debt whatsoever. Umphress said the county puts about $400,000-$450,000 into reserves as a part of every budget year and will still have around $8.5 to $9.5 million left.

One cent of the budget equals about $120,000.

No one spoke on the public hearing concerning the tax rate before the discussion began. Mineral values are down and property values are up, leaving the county to lose about 5% of last year’s revenue.

Some of the increases in this year’s budget included a $4,000 increase in yearly salary to the tax assessor-collector and $2,000 for each deputy, as each will be taking on the work of collecting for all county taxing entity. Each road hand will also be receiving a $2,000 raise.

All county employees will receive a 3% cost of living increase and have their health insurance increase absorbed, which commissioners approved at a previous meeting. Changes in the budget commenced when

TxDOT announced needing $500,000 in culvert, right of way and easement work to begin two projects at the U.S. Highway 281, State Highway 114 split and the U.S. Highway 380, U.S. Hwy. 281 split.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Aug. 25, edition of the Jacksboro Herald-Gazette.