Brazos County commissioners adopted a $482.3 million fiscal year 2026-27 budget and set the county’s property tax rate at $0.443474 after lengthy discussion about spending, property values and the county’s long-term financial strategy.
Budget explained
The budget represents a roughly 12% decrease from the FY 2025-26 budget, said Budget Officer Nina Payne.
Meanwhile, the general fund decreased from approximately $270.3 million to $239 million. Ongoing maintenance and operations expenses decreased by about $849,000.
The budget includes about $2 million in additional employee health insurance costs, nearly $851,000 for a fully staffed medical examiner’s office and more than $334,000 for a new felony associate court.
Zooming in
A large point of discussion was the $52.3 million in general fund balance incorporated into the budget.
Payne and County Auditor Marci Turner emphasized the money is not all being used to cover recurring expenses. For example, $5 million is reserved for county health care responsibilities and $20 million is designated for deferred maintenance.
Roughly $44.5 million of the $52.3 million is assigned, committed or restricted for specific purposes, according to the budget presentation.
This budget does not include cost of living raises for its employees.
The vote
The budget was adopted as proposed in a 4-1 vote with Commissioner Bentley Nettles opposed.
“Somebody worked hard for that money we’re getting to spend, and they expect us to spend it and providing those services to them,” Nettles said.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Wanda Watson pointed out that tough decisions had to be made.
Cost to the taxpayers
The county considered three scenarios for its adopted tax rate:
- $0.414658 per $100 property valuation
- This is the no-new-revenue rate
- General fund needed to balance FY27: $18.1 million
- Would require about $91.6 million from fund balance through 2036
- $0.443474 per $100 property valuation
- General fund needed to balance FY27: $9.4 million
- Maintenance and operations revenues projected to equal expenses in 2032
- $0.448474 per $100 property valuation
The court ultimately voted 3-2 to adopt the $0.443474 rate, which is lower than the proposed rate, but still higher than the 2025-26 rate. Commissioners Nettles and Fred Brown opposed.
Brown said he was opposed to anything but the no-new-revenue rate, “We should never operate beyond our means.”
For a hypothetical $400,000 homestead, Turner estimated the adopted rate would result in approximately a $95.10 annual increase in the county portion of the property tax bill.
