The budget includes money for the general fund, the road and bridge fund and the debt service fund, where $185,246,572 was allotted for the general fund, $36,726,935 for road and bridges and $107,366,640 for debt services.
The budget is not finalized and may change following a public hearing and two budget modification voting sessions. The Commissioners Court will vote to adopt the FY 2018-19 budget during its Aug. 28 meeting as well as adopt a county tax rate.
"We're just simply putting [the budget] out there on the table. There will be changes to that budget, I assure you there will be changes to that budget before we get through," County Judge Dan Gattis said. "We're trying to make it as transparent as we can."
On July 31, the Commissioners Court voted to set a proposed maximum tax rate at $0.466529 per $100 valuation. The proposed tax rate is the combined total tax rate including maintenance and operations, interest and shrinking, and road and bridge taxes and is not the final approved rate. There will be two public hearing on the proposed tax rate that are set to take place Aug. 14 and 21.
The Commissioners Court also approved in a 4-1 vote to have a pay increase of 4 percent for elected officials, excluding the county attorney. In addition, part of the proposed budget includes a 2 percent merit-based increase and 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment pay increase for county employees.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Cynthia Long did not vote for the increase, saying she was instead in favor of a 3 percent pay increase for county elected official pay.
"I've always been of the mind that I want, as an elected official leader, to be somewhat behind what we are recommending for staff because employees are the heart and soul of the county," Long said. "I think as elected leaders we need to prioritize them first... and to lead by example [elected official pay increase] ought to be a little lower."
Following the regular Commissioners Court meeting, county officials for various departments made budget requests to the Commissioners Court.
Some of the departments who requested money are wireless communications, information technology, the sheriff’s department, the county judge's office, emergency services and infrastructure, among other departments.
Fiscal year 2018-19 begins Oct. 1.
Budget dates to know:
Aug. 14, 10 a.m. – Public hearing on proposed maximum tax rate
Aug. 16, 8:30 a.m. – Budget modification voting session
Aug. 21, 10 a.m. – Public hearing on proposed maximum tax rate
Aug. 21, 1 p.m. – Budget modification voting session
Aug. 28, 10 a.m. – Public hearing for FY year 2018-19 budget (during Commissioners Court meeting)
Aug. 28, 9:30 a.m. – Adopt FY 2018-19 budget (during Commissioners Court meeting)
Aug. 28, 9:30 a.m. – Adopt county tax rate (during Commissioners Court meeting)
Public hearings will be held at the Williamson County Courthouse at 710 S. Main St., Georgetown, during the Commissioners Court’s regular meeting.
In other business:
The Commissioners Court had a significant back-and-forth with the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office regarding budgeting issues.
Sheriff Robert Chody and Chief Deputy Sheriff Tim Ryle requested an additional $150,537 to get through the end of FY 2017-18, which ends Sept. 30. Of the $150,537, $42,000 would pay for gasoline expenses and $108,537 would pay for vehicle repair and maintenance.
The requested money would come from the nondepartmental budget, a budget that is part of the general fund and pays for cross-county expenses, including unforeseen costs. The sheriff's department requested in its action item that the money was of grave necessity due to unforeseeable circumstances.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Valerie Covey said in a prior meeting with the law enforcement officials, she requested they re-evaluate their budget to find money within it that can be used for gasoline and maintenance. Covey also disagreed that the request was an emergency and was due to unforeseen circumstances.
“Why did we not talk about gasoline and vehicle maintenance ... six months ago when we could see that [the sheriff's office was] going to be over budget?" Covey said.
Both Chody and Ryle said the department ran out of funding because the Commissioners Court did not give them the full requested budget in the FY 2017-18 budget.
Gattis, who was visibly frustrated, said he believed the department was given a budget, and it needs to work within that budget doing whatever is necessary.
The law enforcement officials said the only way to stay in budget would be to respond to selective cases and reduce the number of patrolled neighborhoods.
“[The sheriff's office funding] forecast ended up being a little bit closer to being accurate than the actual funding that was [given]," Ryle said. "If you don't give us [money] based off of those trends, we are going to run out."
The Commissioners Court decided to take no action on the item to allow for more evaluation of the sheriff’s budget and will revisit the action item at a later meeting.
During a budget workshop meeting that followed the regular meeting, the sheriff’s department asked for an additional 16 deputy positions to reduce the current average response time of 24 minutes for priority calls. The national average is 9 minutes.
"It's a huge ask and it's an expensive ask and I hate that I have to ask for that, but I have that duty that if I feel if that response time is too large and the safety to my deputies is at an issue, we are going to be a liability at some point," Chody said.
