Friday, August 23, 2024
In midst of preparing for the upcoming fiscal year, Coryell County Commissioners held a special meeting on Monday to preview the county’s proposed annual operating budget for 2025.
The lengthy session led to a discussion on top factors in the county’s proposed budget and tax rate increase, salary raises for clerical workers, as well as the adoption of a new health insurance plan for employees.
Proposed budget
The county’s proposed budget will raise more revenue from property taxes by $4.3 million, which is about a 33.24% increase from last year, according to the budget filed on August 15.
Last week, the commissioners court approved a proposed tax rate of .4737 cents per $100 of valuation. This would be a 26.9% increase compared to last year’s tax rate of .37328 cents per $100.
Commissioner Kyle Matthews explains that one of the largest factors in the proposed budget increase is the county not planning for the depletion of around $14 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that were distributed to counties by the federal government following the outbreak of COVID-19.
“Just like anybody, when someone gives you $14 million and says, ‘go spend it’ and you build a lifestyle out of it, and when that $14 million is gone you cannot sustain that lifestyle anymore,” Matthews said.
The act was signed by President Joe Biden in 2021 to combat the pandemic along with public health and economic impacts, according to the National Association of Counties. The package provided $65.1 billion in direct aid to state and local governments.
Matthews said the ARPA funds were used in previous years for the county’s Road and Bridge Department, the capital improvement fund, collecting data for grant support, the Mental Health Deputy Program, among others. He said the balance of the ARPA funds was around $600,000 in 2024, but the majority of it was used over the last three years.
“If you give raises from the ARPA money, or you purchase things that you finance from ARPA money and you don’t plan for that future – that expense continues,” Matthews said.
Commissioner Scott Weddle noted that accommodating for an overspend in the jail’s prisoner board budget and recent county-wide flooding in May and June also heavily impacted the budget in 2024.
Most of the expenses for the flood recovery came out of the county’s Road and Bridge Department, which had to identify, close, and repair several damaged roads and crossings.
“If you will, we almost started out at almost $2 million in the hole that we’re trying to catch up on with the extra expenditures with Road and Bridge and the jail boarding,” Weddle said.
Although the county has applied for a FEMA public assistance grant to help offset the costs of flood repairs, it is still unknown when they will receive the funds.
“They (Road and Bridge) probably expensed at least $1.5 million either with the repairs or clean up,” Matthews said. “But when do you get that money back? It may be in 2025 (or) it might be in 2027.”
Despite the increase, Matthews said that he believes the county could cut the proposed tax rate by up to two cents, which would require cutting around $2 million from the proposed budget.
“I’ve already worked through it, but it takes a cooperative effort from the entire court to go through and agree that this needs to be cut,” he said. “If we can cut it to .45 cents versus (.4737 cents), well that’s only an 8% increase instead of a little over a (10% increase).”
A public hearing on the proposed tax rate is set for Sept. 5 at 9 a.m. in the Commissioners Courtroom at 800 E. Main Street.
Health insurance
During a regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 13, the commissioners court approved a major adjustment to the county’s employee health plan but rescinded the vote at Monday’s meeting.
The vote on August 13 adopted a new coinsurance plan through Baylor Scott & White. County employees expressed concern over the change, as it would include a deductible and a larger out-of-pocket expense for employees on family or dependent plans.
“I don't know what that means in dollars, but it's going to be a major change for my employees to go from what they currently have as a benefit to what you're about to give them with no warning,” Coryell County Tax Assessor Collector Justin Carothers said at the August 13 meeting.
The county’s current health insurance plan covers a single employee at no cost but covers 60% for those on a family or dependent plans. It does not include a deductible and has a smaller out-of-pocket pay.
On Monday, county commissioners rescinded the coinsurance plan and instead opted to renew the current health insurance with a lower plan, dropping it from 60% to 50% coverage.
County Treasurer Randi McFarlin said she did not have enough time to study how the coinsurance plan would have fully affected the employees ahead of open enrollment for the upcoming year, so she recommended that the county renew the current health plan at the lower rate.
“Now, it’s back to what we currently know and what we’ve had for the past few years,” McFarlin said. “They’ve taken that high option away, which was just a broader range of doctors that we could see.”
The adjustment comes after an initial 19% increase to the renewal of the county’s health insurance. During Monday’s vote, Weddle said the county found a way to drop the increase by 15% as well as find cuts in other areas of the budget to cover the additional expense.
“There were some pretty heavy negotiations going on, and I think everybody in this room knows that we're in some very strange times here with rising costs,” Weddle said.
Salary increases
If approved, the county’s proposed budget would also give clerical positions in the county an approximately 16% salary increase, Matthews said. Clerical positions include county clerks and executive assistants across various departments.
The raises mainly target the base pay of the positions for new hires, but current employees will also see an increase. For example, some of the clerks could receive a raise from $25,800 to $31,000.
“Anytime we raise our salary schedule, that is going to positively impact our existing employees, because they get the difference between what was on the old salary schedule and what is on the new schedule. That’s the base pay,” Weddle said.
However, County Attorney Brandon Belt said he doesn’t believe the adjustments fully match current market values.
“If ya’ll think that less than $16 an hour is going to attract folks to put in applications for a clerk's position in Coryell County, I'm afraid y'all are a touch detached in the current market,” Belt said.
Weddle responded that the court has had to raise salaries gradually to avoid raising the tax rate even further.
“This county rock and rolled along for many, many years at a pretty low pay, so we've been really trying to get up,” Weddle said. “We know that the market has gone crazy, but the fact is we have to do this incrementally.”
Matthews said the salary increases for clerical positions make up less than 1% of the county’s overall budget.
According to a public notice filed by the county, the proposed budget also contains salary increases for the county’s elected officials, ranging from $3,000 to $15,000.
The $3,000 would go to the salaries of the county commissioners, justices of the peace, and constables. Carothers, McFarlin, the District Clerk, and County Clerk will also receive $3,000.
County Judge Roger Miller will receive a raise of $7,000, and Belt will receive a $15,000 increase.
The total cost for the elected officials would come out around a total of $70,000 if approved.
The court will address employee salary schedules again at its next meeting on August 27.
