Judge Steve Floyd Wins Election, Focuses on new Opportunities, Prosperity for Tom Green County

Friends, family and supporters surrounded Tom Green County Judge Steve Floyd last night at the old Western Mattress on E. Concho Ave. With the Republican Primary won handily over challenger Richard Easingwood, he looked forward to the next four years of governance. There is no Democrat challenging Floyd in November.

“We actually already have initiated and instituted and we’re going to advance some huge deals that are going to broaden the tax base,” Floyd said.

That sounds like a surprise tax on everyone, but it’s not Floyd explained.

“Primarily, Tom Green County’s problem historically has been that we are a homestead-only [or, residential] tax base,” Floyd said.

“We are taking some steps to grow our tax base that is not going to directly affect the existing infrastructure of the county,” Floyd said. That is, the county will realize more revenue because of a higher appraised value from oil field and oil field services companies that “render” their state taxes from Tom Green County.  All a large company like that needs to do is legally claim Tom Green County as their home of record, and pay taxes from here, and their appraised value is added to the total appraised value from which the county derives property tax revenue.

Floyd and the county staff have been actively recruiting big industrial companies to render here.

All that these companies are required to do is open an administration office inside the county. Floyd said that all of the companies recruited so far are locating in the western edge of the county, near the oil fields in Irion, Reagan, Sterling and Glascock counties.

“The counties that are producing, or have mineral wealth, are okay with it because they already are seeing a boom in tax revenue from the production. This is our way, in Tom Green County, to capture some of the prosperity of the times,” Floyd said.

“No one’s taxes are going up on the residential or agricultural side,” Floyd said.

“The whole goal is that if we continue to control our cost [expenses], and there’s no reason I can see how we’re not going to control our budget, we’re going to spend what we have to spend to take care of our mission. But if we can continue to control costs and at the same time keep adding big chunks of value on to the tax base through these renderings, we can start giving back that money to the taxpayers through tax cuts,” Floyd said. Floyd said that his goal is to reduce the county tax rate by 10 cents, or 20%.

Already, Floyd said, three companies have agreed to render their taxes in Tom Green County, giving it a property valuation increase of approximately $100 million.  His goal is to add $500 million.

The total value of Tom Green County property before the renderings was $4.8 billion taxable.

On the spending side, Floyd said his first objective is the tax cuts. “Whenever a government body has surplus cash sitting around, that’s when the fights start,” he said. “In reality, that money belongs to the taxpayer, so let’s give it back.”

At the same time, Floyd said he and the court would keep an eye on long-term projects. “The county jail is on a long fuse and we need to start looking at a planning phase to increase capacity,” he said. Noting that jail construction is expensive, he said that it’s better to plan a jail before there’s a crisis.

There were no surprises in the other county races.

Bill Ford, who was appointed County Commissioner, Pct.4 in 2012, won his first term as an elected commissioner. “Any time you win an election, you have to be humbled because people took time to come out and vote for you.” Ford said he shares Judge Floyd’s excitement over the innovations in capturing the prosperity surrounding Tom Green County.  “We have so many great opportunities ahead for the county,” Ford said.

Rick Bacon won County Commissioner Pct. 3. Bacon looked up and said he thanked God Almighty for his victory. Bacon is a U.S. Air Force veteran who served time as a launch control officer in ICBM silos.

Dianna Spieker won re-election for County Treasurer. With another four-year term, Spieker becomes the longest-serving county treasurer in the history of Tom Green County.

In the race for Tom Green County Clerk, incumbent Elizabeth “Liz” McGill hung on with just over 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff. Her competition split the remainder of the vote.

In statewide races here in Tom Green County, State Rep. Drew Darby handily defeated the Tea Party challenger Shannon Thomason of Big Spring with 78.61% of the vote with 82% of the votes counted in Tom Green County.

Sid Miller made it to the runoff for Texas Agriculture Commissioner. He will face Tommy Merritt in a May runoff. Miller won Tom Green County in a five-way race. Merritt was second here.

The Tom Green County website has all results from the Mar. 4, 2014 election here.