Montgomery County Commissioners Court met Tuesday morning to approve its $328.75 million budget for fiscal year 2017-18.
The budget represents a $19.3 million reduction from the county's FY 2016-17 budget. Precinct 4 Commissioner Jim Clark was the sole nay vote on approval of the county budget.
The court reduced the county's budget to accommodate an expected $15.6 million revenue loss from a 20 percent homestead exemption on property taxes that was approved in March, county Tax Assessor-Collector Tammy McRae said.
Commissioners also voted to maintain the county's 46.67 cent tax rate per $100 valuation for the 2017 tax year, which is the same as the county's 2016 tax rate.
This year, commissioners approved the creation of a budget office to manage the county's budget for FY 2018-19 and beyond. County Auditor Phyllis Martin and her staff currently manage functions of the budget office. Additionally, the court approved creation of 56.5 new jobs, including 53.5 law enforcement positions at the Montgomery County sheriff's office and county constable's offices combined.
"We offered a 20 percent homestead exemption, we put 53 new law enforcement personnel on the street, we funded our retirement plan at 89 percent and put $53 million into a capital fund and have a strong fund balance to help us maintain [our] AAA credit rating," Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal said during the meeting. "That is a strong budget, commissioners. There is a lot of positives that have come out of this budget this year. I think this is a good budget, and I appreciate the effort that was put forward."