Proposed county tax rate drops by three cents

Judge Lee explains why the proposed tax rate has been reduced by three cents; Commissioner John Fitch listens on.

By LOU ANTONELLI
Editor-in-Chief

Titus County Commissioners Thursday evening held the first of two legally-required public hearings on the tax rate proposed for Fiscal Year 2019-2020, which starts Oct. 1.

County Judge Brian Lee started off with rereading a statement he made at Monday’s commissioners meeting.

“I don’t know how well it was disseminated,” he said.

He noted that at an Aug. 26 meeting the court voted 3-2 to propose a tax rate for the next fiscal year the same as this year, 50.85 cents per hundred dollars in property value. Lee and Commissioners John Fitch and Jimmy Parker voted in favor, while Al Riddle and Dana Applewhite were opposed.

The proposed tax rate was considered the effective tax rate, whereby there would be no increase in revenue collected. Lee said at the time the tax rate was proposed they believed there had been only a “slight overall decrease” in values from last year.

However, he said the county realized four days later there had been a considerable adjustment of the overall property values because of the settlement last fall of the lawsuit brought by Luminant against the Titus County Appraisal District (TCAD).

That settlement resulted in a $187 million decrease in the Luminant assessed value.

“Instead of a slight decrease we had a significant decrease,” said Lee, adding that mid-year adjustments of property values are very uncommon.

As a result of that reduced value, the effective tax rate for Titus County would now be 47.42, said Lee, and that is what is now being proposed.

“We are lowering the tax rate by three cents,” he said.

Despite the decrease, the county will still get $165,000 more in revenue compared to last year.

Among the public speakers, Lyndon Bell said nearby Upshur County is able to operate on a tax rate of 31.89 cents.

He suggested “a little more austerity would be good.”

Lee pointed out that Titus County has the burden for the next 16 years of paying the debt for the construction of the by-pass loop.

Hudson Old asked Auditor Carl Johnson for a breakdown of the tax rate into into into its two parts. Johnson said 39.8 is for Maintenance and Operations while 7.62 is for the Road and Bridge Fund.

Lee noted the county added $100,000 to each precinct's budget because of the end of the unit system which used one road engineer.

Hudson Old asked for a breakdown of the components of the tax rate.