County Plans to Shrink Budget for First Time Since 2016
The Fayette County Commissioners Court met on Thursday, Aug. 14, and signed off on a proposed county budget for next year totaling just over $36 million.
County leaders managed to cut spending by more than $578,000 from the current year. If approved, it will be the first time the County shrunk its budget since 2016.
The General Fund, which pays for most County services such as EMS, the Sheriff’s Office and the County Jail, topped out at $26,539,569.18. That’s roughly a $428,800 decrease from this year’s budget. The four Road and Bridge precincts make up the next largest chunk of the budget. Spending in those departments is budgeted as follows:
•Precinct1-$1,718,288.69
•Precinct2-$2,390,718.40
•Precinct3-$2,295,846.38
•Precinct4-$2,043,394.97 That amounts to about $8.44 million to be spent on road and bridge maintenance throughout the County next year. The County will continue to build up its contingency fund, with $730,000 allocated next year. That will grow the contingency fund to $4.265 million. Overall, the County expects to end 2026 with a more than $14.5 million fund balance.
On the revenue side, Commissioners proposed a property tax rate of $0.40984 per $100 of taxable value, which is the highest rate they could have set without voter approval. That’s a decrease from the current rate of $0.41189. However, due to rising property values and new construction, the lower rate will generate an additional $1,411,559 in tax revenue, which is a 6.0797 percent increase in tax revenue over this year. Of that amount, $637,929 comes from new property added to the tax roll this year.
Commissioners set dates for two public hearings on the tax rate and the budget. The public hearing on the budget will be on Aug. 28 at 9 a.m. The tax rate hearing will take place Sept. 11 at 9 a.m. Both of those hearings will be held in the Commissioners Courtroom on the third floor of the Fayette County Courthouse.
The budget is tentatively scheduled for final approval at the Sept. 11 meeting.
The Commissioners also voted unanimously to accept the proposed budget and file it for public inspection at the County Clerk’s office. It will also be available for inspection on the County website: www.co.fayette.tx.us.
At the beginning of Thursday’s meeting,Ammannsvillearea resident Patsy Parker spoke about the budget during the public comment period.
“I just wanted to congratulate the court for working to balance the budget,” Parker said. “Balanced budgets are very important. I also want to open the eyes of everyone who works in every level of government about DOGEing your area of expertise.”
Parker referred to the effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to cut government spending with help from the new Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE.
Sometimes, State law requires counties to spend money on programs that may seem excessive to local leaders. Parker encouraged elected officials to contact legislators and ask them to change these laws.
“We have to go through and change laws that have been on the books for 20 years, 50 years, to bring government back in line,” Parker said. “I approve of government and I worked for government for many years, but I was also a property manager. When we were told we had to reduce our budget by 10 percent or 20 percent in years that weren’t good, we pulled back and got it done.”