Proposed county budget reflects positive revenue figures
The Van Zandt County Commissioners met Aug. 18 in a special session to discuss the upcoming local elections and the 2015-’16 county budget.
A public hearing was held on the matter of the proposed budget for the fiscal year to end Sept. 30, 2016. No county residents spoke during the public hearing held for the proposed budget.
County Judge Don Kirkpatrick said he was “pleased that the proposed budget is balanced and that the revenue exceeds the expenditures by $144,924 without a tax rate increase.”
Kirkpatrick pointed out that the proposed tax rate of $0.485847 will raise the commissioner’s budget by 1 percent more in property taxes which will raise the road and bridge budget in VZC by $293,379.
“Even though this is a tight budget, and under the current financial situation in VZC, I am excited about the 2016 budget even though there is no wiggle room left within the budget. There is no extra money out there that we are trying to hide and we are working off a budget of bare necessities to get by. But, it is a pleasure to have a balanced budget to present,” said Kirkpatrick.
Commissioner Virgil Melton Jr. pointed out that road and bridge is giving 3 percent of their entire allocated budget back to other departments.
Judge Kirkpatrick said it was a goal to get back to a 75/25 split and that the court has increased the percent last and this year.
“We increased the percent last year and this year and we are currently at 78 percent and the goal is to get back to a 75/25 split.”
The debt occurred by the county will also be paid down by $1 million during the fiscal year.
Commissioner Tim West said that he was happy with the budget, but there were still “a few things that needed to be adjusted.”
Commissioner West made a motion to modify the proposed budget, seconded by Commissioner Brandon Brown.
The motion was approved unanimously.
Tax Rate
The proposed tax of $0.485847 per $100 valuation has been proposed for Van Zandt County. This rate exceeds the lower or the effective or rollback tax rate.
The proposed tax rate is the same as last year’s tax rate. The effective tax rate is $0.47173823 per $100 valuation with a rollback tax rate of $0.48586097.
The effective tax rate is the total tax rate needed to raise the same amount of property tax revenue for the county from the same properties in both the 2014 and 2015 tax years.
The rollback tax rate is the highest rate that VZC may adopt before voters are entitled to petition for an election to limit the rate.
The first hearing for the tax rate will be held at 9 a.m. Aug. 25 and the second hearing will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 1. Both hearings will be held in the VZC Courtroom.
