Taxpayers need a break, says Burnet County judge
Burnet County Judge Bryan Wilson on Aug. 5 pitched his plan to potentially cut the county tax rate by 3 percent, trim the budget, and allocate $1 million specifically to road and bridge maintenance. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
On deadline to submit a 2025-26 budget, Burnet County Judge Bryan Wilson on Aug. 5 pitched a plan to lower taxes and trim spending.
The Burnet County Commissioners Court is currently working out a new tax rate and budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts in October. According to Judge Wilson, new funding requests from county departments amount to around $8.5 million, making the proposed general fund budget about $46.5 million, up from $38 million in 2024-25.
The court hopes to have a proposed budget by Aug. 26 or 27 to meet state filing deadlines.
As county judge, Wilson is Burnet County’s chief budget officer and responsible for putting together the budget for the rest of the Commissioners Court to then vote on.
During an open meeting on Tuesday, Wilson talked about possibly cutting the county tax rate by 3 percent, trimming excess from the $8.5 million in new requests, and allocating $1 million to road and bridge crews, specifically for road improvements.
“I’m a lifelong conservative and, to me, that means lowering taxes,” Wilson told DailyTrib.com after the meeting. “This government needs to be efficient and it needs to be accountable to people. That is their hard-earned money, and it doesn’t grow on trees.”
Asked if cuts to the tax rate and budget were feasible, Wilson replied: “Absolutely.”
The judge, who was appointed to the position in March, said the tax rate could be lowered if the county used a portion of its $29 million fund balance to make up the difference between the budget and how much money is brought in through taxes.
The fund balance is a pool of unallocated, surplus money kept for unexpected expenses, emergencies, and to help balance the budget if needed. Typically, a healthy fund balance is about 25 percent of a government’s operating expenses.
Wilson believes Burnet County has more than enough in the fund balance to maintain that 25 percent threshold and still support the 2025-26 budget.
“I’m glad we have a fund balance and we can afford to do this,” he said. “We do need to keep a good fund balance though, just in case things like the tornado, the tire fire, and the flood come up.”
The $8.5 million in budget requests is mostly for personnel and equipment for county departments, like more deputies and new patrol vehicles for the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office and a records clerks to handle the growing mountains of paperwork across departments.
No specific numbers were shared, but the judge expressed optimism that overall requests and even department budgets could be trimmed.
As of now, Wilson’s plan is still just that and requires approval from the four commissioners of the court.
Senior member of the court, Precinct 4 Commissioner Joe Don Dockery, agreed with Wilson’s pitch—mostly. At Tuesday’s meeting, he and the other commissioners asked Wilson to return with solid numbers on some of the requests and how a tax rate cut would look if implemented.
“I know that (Wilson) is doing everything in his power to drive the tax rate down a little bit,” Dockery told DailyTrib.com. “I’m cautiously optimistic. I think it’s feasible (to lower the tax rate), but I think most of our departments run very lean. I don’t know if there is any fat to be trimmed.”
Dockery also noted that the fund balance was more than capable of handling Wilson’s proposed tax cut but cautioned that Burnet County’s robust finances are largely dependent upon explosive growth and ever-rising property values.
“If that (growth) slows down, we could be in a world of hurt,” he said.