Burnet County OKs budget; changes made amid headbutting

The Burnet County Commissioners Court approved the county’s budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year during a lengthy meeting Tuesday, Sept. 16, at the Burnet County AgriLife Extension building in Burnet. Before the document was adopted, county leaders butted heads over how public dollars would be spent.

The approved budget maintained most of its key features, like a reduced tax rate, no new debt, moderate spending, limited governmental growth, and a focus on county road and bridge infrastructure projects. But a few major changes were worked out on Tuesday in the public eye.

The originally proposed 2.7-percent cost-of-living raises for elected officials were cut, along with a few hundred thousand dollars from several sources to fund the hiring of four new deputies and promotions for mid-level management staff in the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office.

These changes brought to a head an ongoing struggle between Burnet County Judge Bryan Wilson and the Sheriff’s Office centered around Wilson’s refusal to include funding for the deputies and promotions in the budget in an effort to keep county costs down. 

Ultimately, Precinct 2 Commissioner Damon Beierle presented about $435,000 in cuts to the proposed budget to accommodate the needed salaries, benefits, and expenses for BCSO requests.

The changes were made, with Wilson the sole dissenter in the court’s vote.

BUDGET APPROVAL AND CHANGES

During Tuesday’s meeting, the Burnet County Commissioners Court voted unanimously to cut the 2.7 percent raises for all elected officials, which amounted to about $90,000. County employees will still receive the raise.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Jim Luther made the motion to remove the raises and the other members of the court agreed, despite unanimously approving pay increases in August.

“I just thought it was an appropriate action to take,” Luther told DailyTrib.com after the meeting.

The court also chose to not approve Wilson’s proposed budget despite an earlier motion to do so during Tuesday’s meeting. Dockery and Wilson voted in favor of adoption of an unaltered budget, but this was shot down in a 3-2 vote with Beierle, Luther, and Precinct 3 Commissioner Chad Collier on the other side.

Beierle then proposed a few hundred thousand dollars in cuts to the budget to make room for four deputies and five corporal promotions for the Sheriff’s Office. The request had been continually denied by Wilson in the weeks of budget work held in open court. 

“If we take the scalpel out, and we start shaving off some of these here and there, we can lower the tax rate, we can limit the growth of government. But then, if we take this money, we can add the four new deputies and new corporal (promotions) to the Sheriff’s Office,” Beierle said.

Wilson questioned Beierle’s motives.

“You’re working towards an agenda in your proposal here that is flying in the face of all the data that we’ve been talking about for weeks now,” the judge said.

Wilson was referring to several numbers shared with the Commissioners Court, including: 

• a 30-percent drop in major crimes in Burnet County over the past three years;
• a 34 percent increase in BCSO field and leadership staff numbers over the past five years;
• and a 46.8 percent raise in wages for those positions.

He also noted that the traditional markers for adding law enforcement personnel are an increase in crime, excessive response times, or statutory requirements.

“None of those things are here,” Wilson said. “We’re just adopting additional law enforcement and you’re striving to modify the budget for no other reason than political gain? Is that what is going on here?”

Beierle rejected Wilson’s accusation.

“Let me explain where I’m coming from,” the commissioner said. “I’ve been here since 2019. And since I’ve been here, I’ve been talking to (BCSO Chief Deputy Alan Trevino) and (Sheriff Calvin Boyd) to find a way to district out the county better so that those people that call (in rural areas) can get a better response and deputies can be in those areas.” 

Sheriff Boyd stepped up to the mic to back his department’s request for new deputies.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about; you do everything with numbers,” Boyd told Judge Wilson. “When you call 911, I want us to be there as soon as we can and I also want to keep my guys safe. That’s the goal we’re working for. It has nothing to do with politics.”

According to Beierle and Boyd, the new deputies would help reduce response times to the county’s remote areas, like Briggs, Oakalla, Smithwick, and Spicewood, which can be 20-30 minutes depending on the location of the deputies on duty at the time.

Ultimately, the Commissioners Court found $435,000 in the budget for the deputies and corporal promotions, mostly made up of the $90,000 in discarded raises for elected officials and $130,000 from eliminating a proposed public information manager position, along with minor cuts to several line items.

The court approved the changes to the budget in a 4-1 vote, with Wilson dissenting. 

“I’m just shocked that in one single year that we can’t hold the line (on Sheriff’s Office spending),” Wilson said.

The Burnet County Sheriff’s Office accounts for roughly $9.7 million, or about 23.95 percent, of the county’s $40.5 million in the fiscal year 2025-26 general fund. This represents a 44 percent increase over the past two years. The BSCO budget was $7.86 million in 2024-25 and $6.69 million in 2023-24. 

Boyd agreed that the Sheriff’s Office has seen large leaps in funding but argued it was long overdue and likely wouldn’t be the end of the requests.

“It looks like we’ve really been getting a lot in the last few years—and we have been because we needed it, and we need more,” he said. “The reality is, from where we started, we needed those increases. We were so far behind.”

BUDGET AT A GLANCE

As the county’s budget officer, Burnet County Judge Wilson developed the budget and tax rate for fiscal year 2025-26, which starts Oct. 1, alongside the county auditor and put it forth for approval by the Commissioners Court.

Tax rate

The budget is funded by a new total tax rate of $0.3323 per $100 property valuation, which is 6.1 percent lower than the fiscal year 2024-25 rate of $0.3541.

While the tax rate was lowered overall, more money was raised due to elevated property evaluations and new construction in the county.

General fund

The 2025-26 budget will bring in $40.5 million in tax revenue for the general fund, which is expected to have about $43.1 million in expenses this fiscal year. The $1.6 million difference between these figures will be paid for out of the county’s fund balance, which is a pool of unallocated money used for unexpected expenses, emergencies, or to help balance the budget if needed.

This year’s $40.5 million in property tax revenue is about $2.39 million more, or 6.28 percent, than fiscal year 2024-25.

The $40.5 million in general fund revenue will come from the $0.2445 portion of the total tax rate for the year. The money raised by that specific portion of the rate can only be used for general fund expenses.

Road and bridge fund

The new tax rate also raises about $7.5 million for the road and bridge fund, which can only be used for county transportation-related expenses. In addition, $1.6 million was dedicated from the fund balance to accomplish further road and bridge infrastructure upgrades, maintenance, and projects.

The $7.5 million in road and bridge fund revenue will come from the $0.0460 portion of the total tax rate for the year. The money raised by that specific portion of the rate can only be used for road and bridge fund expenses.

Debt service fund

No new tax notes were taken on by Burnet County with this budget, maintaining the total outstanding debt at around $22.72 million. This is the first time since at least 2022 that the county has not taken on new debt. This debt was accrued from an array of sources in recent years:

• $2.53 million issued for various upgrades in 2019; $405,000 remaining on balance
• $6 million issued for various upgrades in 2020; $4.125 million remaining on balance
• $13.375 million issued for jail bond refunding in 2021; $9.985 million remaining on balance
• $6 million issued for refunding in 2022; $1.9 million remaining on balance
• $5 million issued for road and bridge projects in 2023; $2.18 million remaining on balance
• $5 million issued for roads, equipment, and repairs in 2024; $3.465 million remaining on balance.
• other debt amounts to $661,248

The county is putting about $6.6 million toward debt payments this year using the $0.0418 portion of the total tax rate for the debt service fund. The money raised by that specific portion of the rate can only be used for debt service fund expenses.

dakota@thepicayune.com