Burnet County boosts law enforcement and lowers tax rate
CONNIE SWINNEY • STAFF WRITER
BURNET — A spike in property values has prompted Burnet County Commissioners to consider a lower tax rate as well as hire more deputies and “unfreeze” positions at the county jail, officials say.
Commissioners are expected to approve the 2016-17 fiscal year budget Aug. 9 while lowering the tax rate applied to approximately $3.946 billion in taxable property values.
“It’s going to result in a 0.14 percent reduction in the actual tax rate,” Burnet County Judge James Oakley said.
The overall rate is proposed at 39.70 cents per $100 valuation of property with a county budget of approximately $18 million.
That means county taxes on a $100,000 home would amount to $397.
“Our area is blessed with new construction, people coming in, so there’s a lot of new valuations that help pay for things that are going on in the county,” Oakley said.
The value of new construction in 2015 was assessed at approximately $121 million, according to the Central Texas Appraisal District.
“We’ve got good steady positive growth, which helps spread the load to the taxpayers,” he said.
The budget would allow for four additional deputies at the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office as well as a handful of previously “frozen” jailer positions at the Burnet County Jail.
Officials expect to cover the cost of as many as eight jailer positions through inmate transfers from neighboring counties, including Lampasas, Llano, Mason and Hamilton.
“The jail population is good in that we are taking in prisoners from neighboring counties that helps us offset a lot of the cost associated with the county jail,” Oakley said. “We have frozen jailer positions built into the budget that are only unfrozen with the court vote.”
Jail administrators contract with outside entities to charge $35 per inmate per night.
“That payment offsets the salary expense of the jailers who are required to oversee them,” he said.
Officials follow guidelines set forth by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards to determine when to add staff. The county can “unfreeze” the jailer positions as the number of inmates increases.
As far as the sheriff’s office, the four additional deputies, which are included in the new budget, are scheduled to start on Jan. 1, 2017, once approved.
Commissioners also budgeted a 2 percent cost-of-living increase for county employees and absorbed a 5 percent increase in insurance premiums.
connie@thepicayune.com
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Reduction my behind. The rate was 0.36 and now the proposed is 0.39.7. Thats up almost 4 percent.. add that to the increased property valuations and what do you get. Thats right more taxes.