Fort Bend County’s fiscal year 2024-25 budget brings new parks, infrastructure improvements and increased employee pay, including for law enforcement and elected officials.

What residents need to know

The budget, approved at a Sept. 24 Commissioners Court meeting, includes $731.6 million in expenses for FY 2024-25, a 8.2% increase from FY 2023-24.

Commissioners decreased the county’s tax rate to $0.412 per $100 property valuation, down nearly 3.4% from FY 2023-24. The rate is below the no-new-revenue rate of $0.412145, which is the rate that would generate the same property tax revenue as the year prior, according to budget documents.

Additionally, commissioners decreased the Fort Bend County Drainage District’s tax to $0.01 per $100 property valuation, which was also below the no-new-revenue rate of $0.011961. This brings the total county tax rate to $0.422 per $100 property valuation.
The details


Fort Bend County law enforcement employees received $10.2 million in raises ranging from a 4% to 53% increase from last year’s pay. The rate adjustment also brings law enforcement starting salaries to the current market pay rates, Director of Human Resources Nicole Ledet said.

Additionally, all county employees hired before July 1 received a 4% cost-of-living adjustment raise, Director of Finance and Investments Pamela Gubbels said.

Other FY 2024-25 budget highlights include:The budget also funds 75 new positions, more than half of which will staff the Administration of Justice as well as the Parks and Recreation Department, Gubbels said. The total cost for the new positions including salary, training and equipment is $7.66 million.


Another detail


The budget also lays out nearly $53.24 million in capital improvement program projects over five years, with $20.62 million allocated in FY 2024-25.

Projects include:
  • $8.89 million to construct the new Environmental Health Complex
  • $3.04 million for school zone light upgrades
  • $2 million for fairground renovations
  • $2 million for a new ladder truck for the fire department
  • $1.1 million for library phone system conversions
What else?

Additionally, commissioners approved a pay hike between 4% to 26% for Fort Bend County elected officials in a 4-1 vote. Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers was the dissenting vote.
“I think we send the wrong message in giving some of our highest-paid officials a 26% or 30% or 18% increase in pay ... [and] a majority of the court is giving ourselves a 9% increase in pay at the time we are giving our lowest paid employees a 4% [increase],” he said. “I think that is backwards in my opinion, and I am not going to support this.”

However, Precinct 4 Commissioner Dexter McCoy said the raises are part of the county’s larger initiative to ensure all employees are paid comparable to similarly sized counties, including its elected officials.


“I think it’s helpful for folks to understand that this isn’t something that was done in the heat of the night. We have been continuing with this since last year and we've been, in fact, working on salaries across the board in Fort Bend County for the past two to three years,” he said. “There’s no reason why officials in Fort Bend County should be at the top of the pay range as it comes to other like counties and we’re not—we are just at the average of what other compatible counties [are], and that’s why I will support this motion.”

What’s next?

The FY 2024-25 budget will begin on Oct. 1, county officials said.