Llano County adopted its budget and tax rate for 2025-26, raising the tax rate for the first time since 2019 and setting aside $1 million to support the Llano Regional Hospital, if needed.
The Commissioners Court unanimously approved the budget and new tax rate during its regular meeting Monday, Aug. 25, locking in spending and revenues for the start of the fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
BUDGET
The 2025-26 budget raises about $1.48 million more for the general fund than the 2024-25 budget, a roughly 7.8 percent increase, bringing it from last year’s $19.03 million to the coming year’s $20.52 million.
While the budget includes some general increases, like salary raises for elected officials and employees, the lion’s share is $1 million put into the unallocated funds to support the Llano Regional Hospital. Last year’s budget did not include the hospital funding.
“With this (budget) increase, there is a slight increase to what it has to be, but I want everybody to know, and I really appreciate the Commissioners Court support, but, I mean, we added $1 million in our budget for the Llano Hospital,” Precinct 4 Commissioner Jerry Don Moss said during Monday’s meeting.
The $1 million won’t be automatically handed over to the hospital. It will remain in reserve unless it is needed.
“Hopefully, they don’t need it, but we need a hospital in the city of Llano,” Moss said.
TAX RATE
Llano County adopted a tax rate increase for the first time since the 2019-20 fiscal year.
The newly approved rate for 2025-26 is $0.25953 per $100 property valuation, which is about 3.76 percent higher than last fiscal year’s rate of $0.25012.
A no-new-revenue rate would have needed to be $0.24367 per $100 property valuation.
The tax rate increase puts the county at its voter approval rate, or “VAR,” for the year, which is the highest it can be raised by law at one time without it being put to a vote by Llano County residents.
In recent years, the county has been conservative with its tax rate, steadily approving lower rates or holding the same rate year to year since FY 2020-21.
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As the Burnet County budget for the upcoming fiscal year nears approval, elected officials are looking at 2.7-percent cost-of-living raises.
The pay increases are part of the proposed 2025-26 budget, which the Burnet County Commissioners Court is expected to discuss and possibly adopt, along with a new tax rate, on Sept. 9. This year’s proposed raises for elected officials are significantly less than last year’s 6-percent-plus bumps.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Joe Don Dockery proposed 2.7-percent for most elected officials based on year-to-date data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which shows a 2.7-percent increase on the Consumer Price Index from July 2024 to July 2025. The CPI measures cost-of-living expenses such as housing, food, and transportation.
“I don’t think that anybody is working for the same dollar that they were last year,” Dockery told DailyTrib.com.
The court, which includes Precinct 1 Commissioner Jim Luther, Precinct 2 Commissioner Damon Beierle, and Precinct 3 Commissioner Chad Collier, voted unanimously to approve Dockery’s motion. Burnet County Judge Bryan Wilson, as the chairman of the court, elected not to vote on the matter.
County employees are also set to receive raises of at least 2.7 percent.
The only elected official who would get more than a 2.7-percent raise is Burnet County Attorney Eddie Arredondo, who could see a 37 percent salary increase of $45,133.33, from $121,566.77 a year to $166,700.
According to County Judge Wilson, the huge salary leap is to keep the county attorney’s office on par with the pay of similar offices in the county, like the district attorney’s office or the county court at law, which all saw large, state-mandated increases this year. For example, the state-appointed public defender for Burnet County received a large pay raise from $126,509.50 to $166,000. In this case, the county has to pay $147,740 of that total salary.
Wilson, who was appointed as county judge in March, has consistently pitched a conservative budget and tax rate, but deferred to his fellow members of the Commissioners Court when it came to the proposed cost-of-living raises.
“As the new budget officer, I gave a lot of leeway to those that have been doing it longer than me,” he told DailyTrib.com.
The salaries of elected officials caused a stir in 2024, when former county Judge James Oakley pitched different versions of the budget that would have given sizable raises to a variety of offices. Ultimately, backlash from the public and other county officials reduced the proposed raises to 6 percent across the board, except for the sheriff, who received a 16.41-percent increase, and the county constables, who saw 17.95-percent pay raises to bring them closer to the salary of a justice of the peace.
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A 19-year-old Horseshoe Bay resident was struck and killed by a vehicle while on foot in the city during the early morning hours of Aug. 23. The driver involved in the incident was arrested on an intoxication manslaughter charge.
At 1:57 a.m. Saturday, Horseshoe Bay police responded to a 911 call regarding a vehicle-pedestrian collision at the intersection of Tonto and Broken Arrow. The pedestrian, Abraham Misael Hernandez, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver, 27-year-old Oliver Eve of Austin, was booked into the Llano County Jail on a charge of intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle, a second-degree felony.
The crash is under investigation.
Hernandez had attended Marble Falls High School and grew up in the Highland Lakes area, according to family friend Amy Wheeler.
“He was my son’s best friend and a very big part of our family,” she told DailyTrib.com.
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Agendas for Highland Lakes governments are posted 72 hours before a meeting so are not always ready by the time this story is published. Check the links for more information.
Monday, Aug. 25
Llano County Commissioners Court
9 a.m. regular meeting
Justice of the Peace Precinct 4 Courtroom, 752 Andy Taylor Drive in Llano
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Marble Falls is looking at a modest budget for the coming fiscal year, maintaining current services and keeping its tax rate the same amid lagging sales-tax revenue and less-than-expected ad valorem revenue.
The City Council approved a proposed 2025-26 fiscal year budget and proposed tax rate on Tuesday, Aug. 19, starting a countdown to the Sept. 16 public hearing and possible adoption of both.
The proposed budget sees most city departments maintain or reduce their expenses from the 2024-25 fiscal year to the 2025-26 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
“One of our major streams (of revenue) is sales tax,” City Manager Mike Hodge told DailyTrib.com. “What’s happened is that our sales tax revenue has been stagnant. We are used to 2- to 4-percent increases per year, and that is not happening right now.”
Hodge explained that the city typically funds improvements and additions to services with the revenue generated by the steady growth of its sales tax, but with current projections showing a holding pattern in sales-tax revenue, services were kept the same and many upgrades or additions to services were put on hold.
“I don’t think citizens will see any significant difference in services,” he said.
Sales tax is a huge chunk of Marble Falls’ budget, roughly 65 percent most years. In FY 2023-24, the city brought in a whopping $10.92 million in sales tax. The city is projected to see a big jump by the end of FY 2024-25, estimated at $11.26 million, but that doesn’t quite meet the typical growth rate expected by city administration. The proposed budget for FY 2025-26 plans for fairly stagnant sales-tax revenue, predicting $11.38 million for the coming year.
“With the budget (this year), we decided to be as conservative as possible,” Mayor John Packer said. “You’ve got to spend more to keep up (with growth), but my goal as mayor is to keep the tax rate the same or even lower it a little bit.”
The new budget would be funded by a tax rate of $0.5350 per $100 property valuation, which is the same rate from FY 2024-25.
While the tax rate is the same, it would raise more revenue than last year due to an increase in property values. The city is projected to collect a total of $3.61 million for FY 2024-25, but would collect about $4.02 million if the same tax rate is approved for the coming fiscal year.
The rate would help fund the proposed budget, which has about $21.43 million in projected expenses for its general fund. This is only slightly more than the $21.42 million that the city is projected to spend by the end of FY 2024-25.
GET INVOLVED
The proposed fiscal year 2025-26 budget for Marble Falls can be found here. Keep up with Marble Falls government agendas here.
The public hearing for the budget and tax rate will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 16 at Marble Falls City Hall, 800 Third St. The meeting is open to the public and residents are welcome to provide comments at that time, but any questions, concerns, or remarks also can be made ahead of time by contacting members of City Council.
Call Marble Falls Mayor John Packer at 830-693-3615 or contact him via this link.
Contact councilors Richard Westerman, Craig Magerkurth, Karlee Hubble, Lauren Haltom, Dee Haddock, and Griff Morris by their email addresses, found on the city’s elected officials webpage.
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A wrongful death lawsuit filed Aug. 18 in the U.S. 281 crash last month that killed five young women is seeking over $1 million for gross negligence from three parties involved, including the driver accused of causing the wreck.
Named in the civil suit are 37-year-old Williamson County man Kody Talley; his father, Charles Talley; and the elder Talley’s company, Texas Camp Horses LLC.
Kody Talley was arrested Aug. 5 and charged with five counts of manslaughter in connection with the fatal collision.
The suit, filed by families of three of the victims, accuses Talley of exhibiting “extreme risk” in his behavior leading up to the crash, when the pickup truck he was driving while towing a horse trailer collided with two cars, including the one occupied by the five women. While there is currently no public evidence that Talley was intoxicated at the time of the wreck, the suit includes that as a possibility, along with an accusation that he was traveling at an “unsafe speed” with a conscious disregard for the safety and welfare of others on the road.
The suit also accuses Talley’s father of knowingly allowing his son to operate the truck and trailer without a proper license. Also, because of previous driving under the influence convictions, the younger Talley is only allowed to drive vehicles with an ignition interlock device, which measures alcohol content on a driver’s breath and will not allow a vehicle to start if a person is over the limit. The truck Talley was driving did not have a device installed.
The third party named in the suit is Texas Camp Horses LLC, for which Kody Talley was driving at the time of the wreck.
Lifelong friends Thalia Salinas, Ruby Cruz, Jacqueline Velazco, Brianna Valadez, and Deziree Cervantez—all in their early 20s and of the Dallas/Fort Worth area—were killed in the July 25 wreck near the intersection of U.S. 281 and Park Road 4 between Burnet and Marble Falls.
The wrongful death suit was filed by the families of Salinas, Cruz, and Velazco with J. Alexander Law. The families of Valadez and Cervantez are pursuing separate legal action with other law firms.
The suit also calls for a jury trial, but no timeline is in place for when or if a civil case will be heard in court.
Talley must first deal with the separate criminal case against him, the five felony charges of manslaughter, which will likely take precedence over the civil suit.
THE FATAL COLLISION
On the early evening of July 25, Talley reportedly drove into oncoming traffic in a 2018 Dodge Ram pickup truck hauling a horse trailer while heading northbound on U.S. 281 near Park Road 4, striking two vehicles. One of those vehicles was a Mercedes SUV traveling southbound and carrying the five Dallas-area women. That vehicle flipped and caught fire, killing everyone inside. The occupants of the other vehicle, a Chevy Malibu, also traveling southbound, reportedly suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Talley was arrested on Aug. 5 on five charges of manslaughter. At the time, he was working for his father’s company, transporting several horses in the livestock trailer towed behind a truck co-owned by Charles Talley.
An affidavit filed by Texas Department of Public Safety Cpl. Jarek Stuart in the Burnet County Court At Law cited several issues surrounding the wreck. Talley:
seemed to have accelerated straight into oncoming traffic, according to data taken from his airbag monitor;
had two previous convictions for driving under the influence;
was driving a truck that did not have the required ignition interlock device;
and was not properly licensed to drive a truck and trailer at the weight he was hauling.
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The Burnet County Commissioners Court on Aug. 19 approved a slimmer proposed budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, cutting the tax rate and denying requests for more deputies at the Burnet County Sheriff’s Office.
There is still some time for numbers to be adjusted before a Sept. 9 public hearing and potential adoption of the budget, but it is likely to remain close to its current form.
The unanimous decision came after hours of discussion during the court’s regular meeting Tuesday. County Judge Bryan Wilson stuck to his guns on keeping a 3-percent tax cut for property owners and in rejecting Burnet County Sheriff’s Office requests for four new deputies, which would have forced a higher tax rate and added a recurring cost of $250,000 in salaries.
“This budget holds to our conservative principles and the previously adopted tax rate (0.3323 per $100 property valuation) that allows our citizens to have a 3-percent tax decrease,” Wilson said prior to the vote. “I promised that I would put people first. That is a choice that we have to make today.”
BUDGET HEARING SET
An official public hearing and potential adoption of the 2025-26 fiscal year budget is 9:30 a.m. Sept. 9 in the second-floor courtroom of the Burnet County Courthouse, 220 S. Pierce St. in Burnet. Residents may speak during the hearing, but those seeking feedback from court members should make requests, express concerns, and ask questions before the meeting.
The proposed FY 2025-26 budget can be found here. It shows a total proposed tax rate of 0.3323 per $100 property valuation, a significant decrease from the FY 2024-25 rate of 0.3541 per $100 property valuation. While it is an overall tax rate decrease, it would still raise about $1.54 million, or 3.91 percent, more in funds for the county than last year due to rising property values. Last year’s budget raised about $38.11 million for the general fund.
The proposed 2025-26 budget would raise a total of $40.5 million for the general fund to cover about $43.1 million in expenses. The $2.6 million difference would be covered by the county’s fund balance, a pool of surplus money kept for unexpected expenses, emergencies, and to help balance the budget if needed.
BUDGET BATTLE
During the meeting, Burnet County Sheriff Calvin Boyd and Chief Deputy Alan Trevino argued that the Sheriff’s Office needs four new deputies, continuing a discussion that began during a marathon six-hour meeting Aug. 12.
Trevino stated that the average response time for deputies is about 12 minutes and 20 seconds and that the county should have at least 31 patrol officers, according to FBI standards. The county currently has 28 patrol officers.
“You tell me: Do you want to improve on that (call response time) or do you want it to go up?” Trevino asked Wilson.
Judge Wilson noted that the Sheriff’s Office has increased its staff by 34 percent over the past five years and its overall wages have gone up 46.5 percent.
Trevino replied by saying a recent drop in major crimes could be attributed to more funding for the Sheriff’s Office.
“Do we want to continue that trend (of decreasing major crimes)? We’re continuing to grow, but you’re happy to leave us where we are rather than to address the problem that is coming,” he said. “Our population is going to continue to grow.”
Following Trevino’s arguments, Wilson moved for approval of his budget without the four new deputies, maintaining the 3 percent tax rate cut he originally proposed.
The decision was unanimously approved by the other four members of the Commissioners Court. Precinct 2 Commissioner Damon Beierle did ask that the judge and Sheriff’s Office sit down with the county auditor between now and the proposed budget adoption day of Sept. 9 to hammer out any disagreements.
“You can prioritize meeting together face to face to get this ironed out, and we don’t have to do it again in court?” he asked.
Wilson and Trevino agreed to the request. The court moved that all county department heads and elected officials should set up meetings with the judge by Aug. 29 if they’d like changes considered to the proposed budget.
GET INVOLVED
Keep up with Burnet County Commissioners Court meetings, budgets, and agendas on the county’s agenda center webpage. Meetings, including the one on Tuesday, can be viewed on the county’s YouTube page.
Residents can attend meetings and offer public comment or contact the members of the Commissioners Court directly with comments, concerns, and questions at:
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Texas Railroad Commission Chair Christi Craddick is the guest speaker at the Burnet County Republican Picnic on Sept. 14. The event is 4-7 p.m. at Bill’s Burgers, 306 W. Polk St. in Burnet. Tickets are $40 and may be purchased at the link. Sponsorships are also available. Burnet County Republican Club members recently met to plan the annual event, including (seated, from left) Brenda Miles, Gail Teegarden, Carolyn Alexander; (standing, left) Tammy Hullum, Becke Freitas, Londa Chandler, Janice Estill, Stacy Smith, Sally Tutor, and Janet Park. Courtesy photo
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At 10 a.m. Wednesday, the National Park Service will host the annual wreath-laying ceremony at the president’s gravesite on LBJ Ranch on the national park grounds. The ceremony continues a tradition that Lady Bird Johnson began in 1973 for her late husband, whose grandparents settled in what is now Johnson City. Col. Erik L. Dutkiewicz will help present the wreath and provide remarks. President and Mrs. Johnson’s granddaughter Catherine Robb is the keynote speaker.
Dutkiewicz serves as commander of 502d Security Forces Group, Joint Base San Antonio. As the installation’s senior law enforcement executive, the colonel leads 1,000 law enforcement, security, and legal professionals.
Robb, daughter of Lynda Johnson Robb and Charles Robb, is one of President Johnson’s seven grandchildren to carry on his legacy. She grew up in Virginia, where her father was elected governor and then U.S. senator, and later moved to Austin to study at the University of Texas School of Law, earning her degree with honors in 1998.
Living in Texas provided the opportunity to be with her beloved grandmother. Robb recalls spending each Tuesday with Lady Bird Johnson, cooking, watching PBS, or reading some of her grandmother’s favorite books. Today, Robb is a counsel in the Austin law firm of Haynes and Boone, specializing in media, First Amendment law, and intellectual property litigation. She serves in a variety of capacities, including as a member and chair of the KLRU board and council member for the University of Texas School of Undergraduate Studies and the LBJ School of Public Affairs.
Robb is also the founder, former chairman, and chair emeritus of the LBJ Library Future Forum. Having learned the value of philanthropy from her grandmother, she volunteers for several community nonprofits, including Reading is Fundamental of Austin, Trinity Center, and Volunteer Legal Services.
To view the wreath-laying ceremony, stop first at LBJ State Park to pick up a free vehicle permit and map. The state park’s visitor center will open at 8:30 am. The LBJ Ranch gate opens at 9 am. The Johnson Family Cemetery is located just inside the ranch entrance. Allow plenty of time to arrive at the cemetery prior to 10 a.m.
FUN & GAMES
LBJ State Park’s Sauer-Beckmann Farm is holding a presidential birthday celebration from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23, with old-fashioned games for all ages. Admission to the park and farm are free.
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