By Bob Belcher
Daily Sun
The Navarro County Commissioners Court took the final step in the budget process Monday, passing a spending plan for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 that leaves a $660,000 deficit in the general fund.
Commissioners made only minor adjustments to the budget during Monday’s session prior to adopting the plan. No one spoke during an official public hearing on the budget before its approval by the court.
Approval of the plan came after several weeks of workshops, and hearings on the budget and tax rate held during regular commissioners court meetings. The tax rate — 62.70 cents per $100 assessed valuation — is up 4.42 cents from the current-year figure.
“It’s just what we had to do. We didn’t have a whole lot of choice in the matter,” said H.M. Davenport Jr., county judge. Davenport said the county’s tax rate, while up this year, had previously been near the rate adopted Monday, rising over the last two years.
“We’re required to provide basic services ... as such, when our costs go up, in effect the cost to the taxpayer is going to go up, too,” he said, noting that himself and all four commissioners pay the same taxes and are seeing the same increase.
Still unresolved in the county budget is the City of Corsicana’s request for an increase in the amount the county pays to the city for fire protection services. In previous budget years, the county has paid $25,000 annually to have city fire trucks respond to structure fires in the county, and for fire investigations. The city requested $35,000 in the new budget year, an amount the county didn’t approve. City leaders countered with a “per call” figure of $250 per response, plus an hourly fee for investigative services.
“We’ve made no agreement to do anything yet,” Davenport said. “Our offer still stands to pay the $25,000 we’ve been paying ... we didn’t agree to (the increase) because we didn’t have the money.”
The Corsicana City Council meets Tuesday to adopt its budget, and act on interlocal agreements for services it provides to the county.
Commissioners also heard Monday from representatives of several volunteer fire departments and representatives of Emergency Service District No. 1, asking that funding for the three departments who are a part of the separate ESD taxing entity not be cut by the county.
The county funds volunteer fire departments throughout the county on a “per truck/per month” basis, at a rate of $175 in the budget adopted Monday. At issue was whether the three departments that contract with the ESD — Powell, Kerens and RC/287 — should continue to receive the monthly supplement since taxpayers in the ESD pay an additional tax for the benefit of the participating departments.
Frank Steed, president of the ESD, said district tax revenues were intended for the “enhancement” of fire protection within the district, and not intended to fully fund operation of the participating departments. He said two of the departments in the ESD — Powell and RC/287 — also have assigned areas outside of the district, which roughly encompasses the Kerens Independent School District boundaries.
Representatives from RC/287, Kerens, and the Navarro County Volunteer Firefighters Association also voiced their concerns about eliminating the per-truck subsidy.
Commissioners voted to continue to fund the departments, but both Kit Herrington, Pct. 1 commissioner, and James Olsen, Pct. 4 commissioner, said the court should review the departments’ funding requests annually.
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Bob Belcher may be reached via e-mail at belcher@corsicanadailysun.com. Want to “Soundoff” on this story? E-mail: soundoff@corsicanadailysun.com.
