The Terry County Commissioners Court met on Monday morning Sept. 11, 2023, with more agenda items than normal. Three items were for public hearings and three other items were for adoption. After the Commissioners approved the minutes from the previous meeting, paid bills, and approved reports, they went into the first public hearing.
The first public hearing was for the Terry County Clerk 2023-2024 Records Management & Records Archive Plan. County Clerk Kim Carter recently told the Court, that her office continues with this plan. The County Clerk’s Office is updating all records and archives so they can be accessed digitally. There was no public comment during the public hearing portion. The Court moved unanimously to adopt the 2023-2024 Records Management & Records Archive Plan.
Next, the Court would hold a public hearing on the proposed 2024 county budget. According to the Court, the proposed budget for 2024 is $14,385,513.00 which is an increase of $730,421.00 from the 2023 budget. Included in the increase are $472,605.00 for road & bridge, $124,050.00 for the general fund, $5,924.00 for Kendricks Memorial Library, $61,059.00 for the juvenile probation office, $3,000.00 for jurors, $1.000.00 for pre-trial diversion, $11,920.00, and $50,863.00 for elections. No one showed up or spoke in favor or against the proposed budget. The Court moved to approve the 2024 budget.
Moving on to the next agenda item was to have another public hearing, this time on the proposed tax rate. The certified taxable value from the Terry County Appraisal District is $936,361,696.00 and is an increase in property value by $66,881,793. This meant the county would need to lower the tax rate from the current one which is $0.721316 per $100 valuation. The Court was presented with a “no new revenue” tax rate of $0.672667 per $100, however, they were also presented with the voter-approved rate of $0.705537 per $100 and any rate over that would trigger an election. The Court decided in the August 28, 2023 meeting to propose the voter-approved rate of $0.705537 per $100.00 which is an increase from the no new revenue of $307,782.00. Once the public hearing was over, which again no one spoke in favor or against, the Court moved to approve the 2024 tax rate of $0.705537.
After the approval of the tax rate, Precinct 3 Commissioner Martin Lefevere said he would like to make a comment and he said, “Mike (Precinct 1 Commissioner Mike Swain) probably knows how long because as long as I’ve known… because I used to attend every one of these (commissioners court meetings) before I ever got in, for about fives years and we’ve operated with the same amount budget for all those years without an increase. Just like this morning I came by the truck stoop pout there and diesel was $0.20 cents higher than it was on Saturday. You know we have to commend everybody in this courthouse and etc., that we’ve operated with the same budget for six or seven years and everything out there has gone up. You know the first truckload of diesel I got was $12,000.00 and the last one I got was $24,000.00.”
Precinct 1 Commissioner Mike Swain chimed in saying, “We’ve kept the tax rate low for so long that we got to where we couldn’t do our job properly… and it’s just one of those kinds of things that we keep hoping things will change… and there is a perception out there in the world that it doesn’t cost the government anything, that they get special deals. Naw… like you said, we buy diesel just like everybody else… and truck parts and repairs… those $1,250.00 maintainer tires and things like that. Everything goes up everywhere and people have to decide, do they want no services with low taxes or do you actually want services with your taxes.”
Next, the Court approved the Terry County Airport Board Members which are Precinct 2 Commissioner Richard Cavazos (The Terry County Airport is now in Precinct 2) Precinct 1 Commissioner Mike Swain (secretary), Donnie Dingus (President), Lee Cottrell (Vice President), John M. Addison, Kirby Keesee, and Brad Tankersly (Airport Manager)
The Court then approved the sheriff and constable fees, which did not change, and heard from Jackie Pate of the Terry County Soil and Water Conservation District on the upcoming 68th Annual Terry County Farm Tour which will take place on Thursday, September 21, 2023. The Court approved the fees and the farm tour.
Next, Terry County Treasurer Andrea Perry presented the new health and dental insurance rates to the Court. According to Perry, the current health insurance rates per month are employee Only $719.72, employee + child(ren)$1.131.16, employee + spouse＄1.504 90 employee + family $1,918.40, which the county pays full the county employees’ health insurance and pays a percentage of the dependents. The new rate is employee Only $752.10, employee + child(ren) $1,182.08, employee + spouse＄$1,572.68, and employee + family $2.002.84. The new amount the employee will pay for their dependents is for the children $214.98, for the spouse only is $410.29, and for the spouse and children it’s $625.27.
