Commissioners Adopt Budget and Tax Increase

SAN ANGELO, TX -- Tom Green County Commissioners Tuesday adopted a budget for FY 2019 that requires a one cent tax increase.  

The court held a public hearing on the budget before adopting it.  According to County Judge Steve Floyd, no one spoke at the public hearing.  The court held hearings on the budget throughout the summer and hammered out a $47,366,996.00 spending plan which requires a tax rate of 54.5 cents per $100 in property value.  This year’s budget will raise more total property taxes than last year’s budget by $1,717,335.48 or 4.98 percent and of that amount $428,681.39 is tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year.  

This year’s spending increase was less than half the increase the court approved last year.  In FY 2018, the court increased the budget by 10.6 percent.

The budget includes a five percent pay raise for county employees; 2.7 percent cost of living adjustment and 2.3 percent for department heads to use for merit raises.  It also includes a three percent pay raise for elected officials.

As we reported earlier, the school property tax rate is the largest portion of the total property tax bill.  The tax rate combined with new appraised values determine the total tax amount. San Angelo residents pay a property tax to the school district, the city of San Angelo and Tom Green County.  

The current combined tax rate, that provides general revenue to all three government entities, is $2.521 per $100 in property value.  Of that $2.521, $1.21 goes to the San Angelo ISD, 0.776 cents goes to the city of San Angelo and 0.535 cents goes to the county. That will increase to $2.531 per $100 in property value with the county’s tax increase. 

The San Angelo city council has indicated its tax rate will remain the same at 0.776 cents per $100 in property value. The San Angelo city council is set to adopt a budget and tax rate on Sept 18.  

The criminal justice system is to blame for the pressure on property tax for the county.  The county’s budget includes funding for the court system which includes capital murder cases.  County taxpayers pay for the judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys along with expert witnesses and all expenses for capital murder cases.  There are ten capital murder cases pending in the court system.