Texas counties gearing up to fight taxpayer protections

When is the reduction in the rate of growth a spending cut?

It appears the Texas Association of Counties and some county officials are preparing to fight taxpayer protections again this session.

While many taxpayers are complaining about property taxes, TAC spokesmen are saying “Counties aren’t the problem.” (Actually, local governments are growing faster than Texans’ paychecks – four times faster!)

But the facts don’t get in the way of big-government advocates.

There is a survey traveling around the counties by TAC asking how revenue or appraisal caps would "hurt" them. I am trying to get a copy of that survey - not all counties are doing it.

I also am hearing from some of the "new" county commissioners who are just now going through their TAC indoctrination that they are informed how the caps would "take money away" from the county.

Hum... since when is a reduction in the rate of growth a "spending cut"??? It's amazing that businesses deal with that every day - and certainly families are sitting around their kitchen table making cuts to their family budgets now. They aren’t necessarily cutting the rate of growth but actually cutting their spending.

Below is an example of the "fuzzy math" being used by county officials in Burnet County.

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Burnet officials warn of service cuts if Legislature pass revenue caps
Revenue caps could harm county budget

by Hal Brown
Highland Lakes Newspaper

Virtually all the non-statutorily required services Burnet County offers would be wiped out of the county budget if the state imposes revenue caps in the next legislative session, county commissioners said Tuesday.

While there is no specific proposal to cap county revenues, the Texas Association of Counties was surveying commissioners courts to see the effects of a 5 percent, 3 percent or 0 percent cap on county revenues above the county effective rate. (The effective rate is the rate which allows revenues in a new budget year to precisely equal the budget in the past year.)

As figures by County Auditor Kevin Smith, said County Judge Donna Klaeger, a 5 percent cap would mean a decrease of $1,0880,432; a 3 percent cap would mean a decrease of $1,851,637 and 0 or no increase would mean $3,207,932 less.

The projected 2009 budget is $17,911, 244, but much of that figure is statutorily required programs the county must fund.

"If we lose $1,080,000 it really doesn't matter how we prioritize them, we lose all of them," said Precinct 4 commissioner Joe Don Dockery. The Legislature, he said, "needs to have an understanding how deep a cut this is."

Precinct 1 Commissioner Bill Neve said there has been talk about putting revenue caps as a local option.

"If citizens come to us with a petition to cut revenues, we have to put it on the ballot," he said.

Klaeger said with a $1 million cut the county would probably have to drop all funding except for the area fire departments and emergency medical services.

That could mean cuts in county allocation to Department of Public Safety funds, employee benefits, the agricultural extension service, parks, government trappers, animal control, courthouse and facility security, non-profit organizations, the Special Operations Unit drug enforcement taskforce, the county library and Interface Recycling, among others.