Commissioners met the previous week for budget workshops to build a proposed fiscal year 2022-23 budget. The Aug. 9 meeting will be a regular session of Commissioners Court.
Discussion on the items below is not guaranteed as commissioners have the authority to defer items to future Commissioners Court meetings.
Tax rate vote
Commissioners will discuss and decide a property tax rate to fund the FY 2022-23 budget. The date for the rate was set at an Aug. 3 budget workshop session following department presentations of their budgetary needs.
Tax rates were initially set to be decided Aug. 5, according to a budget calendar approved April 22. However, Budget Officer Amanda Carter and Tax Assessor-Collector Tammy McRae reported at a July 26 meeting that the Montgomery Central Appraisal District would not have certified property values until Aug. 5, past a statutory deadline of July 25. The missed deadline meant the county had to wait to set new rates.
According to the Texas comptroller’s office, taxing units must calculate a no-new-revenue or effective rate and a voter-approval rate after receiving a certified property roll. The no-new-revenue rate would produce the same amount of taxes if applied to the same properties taxed in both years, while the voter-approval rate, which combines a maintenance and operations rate and a debt service rate, is the maximum rate that can be set without voter approval.
If the calculated tax rate needed to fund the FY 2022-23 budget exceeds the lower of the effective rate or the voter-approval rate, a public hearing must be held. An item on the Aug. 9 agenda will require commissioners to set a hearing date if the rate conditions are met.
Montgomery County has adopted tax rates either equal to or lower than the effective rate for each year since FY 2019-20, according to the county’s tax rate history. The county’s FY 2021-22 tax rate is $0.4083 per $100 valuation.
Public improvement district creation
Commissioners will hold a public hearing for input on the creation of a new public improvement district to be named the Crockett Meadows Public Improvement District. The district petition was heard and approved for a public hearing at a July 12 Commissioners Court session.
The district petition was noticed by attorneys of Von Schmidt Land and Cattle LLC, which was registered in August 2021 by Charles Von Schmidt. According to a press release, Von Schmidt is a real estate developer headquartered in Livingston in Polk County.
Public improvement districts are described in Chapter 372 of the Texas Local Government Code as “definable parts” of a municipality or county that can be created by that municipality or county for “authorized improvements.” A full description of authorized improvements can be found in the statute, but they include creating streets or sidewalks, pedestrian malls and water facilities.
The Von Schmidt PID petition requests the county to manage the district but does not require any payments from the county. Specific improvements were not named in the petition, but the total cost is listed as $36 million.
If approved, the district would be the second PID created in Precinct 4 in 2022, following Meadow Park, which was approved in April. Commissioners did not hold any further discussion on the item, which was approved by all four present commissioners.
