Hays County Judge proposes Fiscal Year 2022 Budget

Staff Reports

Hays County Courthouse, TX – Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra presented his Fiscal Year 2022 recommended County budget of $292,901,584 to the Commissioners Court on August 3, 2021.

“My proposed budget is a starting point for Commissioners to debate and for the public to provide comment,” Becerra said. “This is the catalyst to get the process rolling.”

The Judge said his philosophy in preparing this draft was to budget just what each department needs and nothing more. Initial budget requests, which were submitted by staff and elected officials in late May, were approximately $18.7 million over the amount needed to balance.

Some highlights of the Judge’s recommended budget include:

Tax Rate

• Balanced budget reducing Tax Rate to No New Revenue Rate .3867 (FY21 Adopted Rate .4212). This is the lowest it has been since 1990.

Additional Leased Vehicles

• Sheriff’s Office – 25 replacement patrol vehicles & five new patrol vehicles
• Animal Control – one new ACO truck
• Juvenile Probation – one new transport vehicle
• Juvenile Detention – one new transport vehicle

Capital Assets

• $250,000 – Planning for Mental Health /Veteran’s Services Facility (pending American Rescue Plan Funds approval)
• $100,000 – Planning for Evacuation/Civic Center Facility (reserves or American Rescue Plan Funds approval)
• $500,000 – Architectural Planning for new District Courtroom (50% reserves/50% Civil Courts Building Fund)

Personnel (includes fringe)

• $918,000 – 20 new positions for expansion of jail operations
• $72,000 – specialty court program for County Courts-at-Law
• $90,000 – establish Budget Office
• $600,000 – establish a Public Defender Office
• $538,000 – 2% COLA for employees and dept. heads effective 1/1/2022 (excludes elected officials)
• $270,000 – merit base salary increases for CBA law enforcement positions
• Funding set aside to consider deputy constable positions post re?districting
• Funding set aside for new district judge & district court reporter effective 9/1/2022

Average Home Values

Recommended                              FY2020                                 FY 2021                        FY 2022

Average Home Value                   $262,755                               $274,688                       $282,832

Homestead Exemption                 ?5,000                                    ?5,000                            ?5,000

Taxable Value                                $257,755                               $269,688                       $277,832

Adopted Tax Rate                         42.37¢                                    42.12¢                            38.67¢

Property Tax                                   $1,092.11                              $1,135.93                      $1,074.38

New Improvements added to the tax roll: $1,207,295,762

Public Meetings

The Court also set three budget workshops for the public to provide feedback on the draft budget:

• August 10 at 11 a.m.
• August 17 at 11 a.m.
• August 24 at 1 p.m.

Judge Becerra said he welcomes public input on his draft budget.

“The Commissioners Court wants to hear from our residents about budgetary process,” he said. “Our goal is to develop a balanced budget that meets the needs of our county and provides adequate levels of service. It’s important to receive public feedback during this process so we can achieve our common goals.”

Each budget workshop will be livestreamed and archived at https://hayscountytx.com/commissioners-court/court-video/.

The Judge’s recommended budget and related financial information is available through the Financial Transparency icon on the County’s website at https://hayscountytx.com (once you click that icon, scroll down to the FY 2022 Budget Planning section under Auditor’s Reports).

*Your specific taxes owed under the above rate can be calculated using this formula:

Property tax amount = (rate) x (taxable value of your property) divided by 100.

The effective tax rate is the tax rate that would generate the same amount of revenue in the current tax year as was generated by a taxing unit’s adopted tax rate in the preceding tax year from property that is taxable in both the current tax year and the preceding tax year. The tax rate applies only to Hays County government; other taxing entities within the county such as cities, school districts, and special districts set their own tax rates.