Dateline: September 7, 2006

Citizens review county's proposed budget

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

The Donley County Commissioners’ Court fielded questions about their 2006-2007 proposed budget during a public hearing Tuesday morning.

County Judge Jack Hall opened the meeting, and commissioners approved a motion equalizing the salaries for the secretaries in both Justice of the Peace courts at $8,308.11 each.

In comments from the public, Billie Shaffer inquired about the amount of fines the Department of Public Safety contributes to the county.

“We don’t have that broken down that way,” Hall replied, “but I can tell you that about 39 percent of county income is from property taxes and about 61 percent is from fines, fees, and services.”

Shaffer next asked about the amount the county spends to support the local DPS office, which is budgeted for $29,679.40, and why the state did not pick up the tab for that. Hall said that was the agreement the county made in order to have the regional DPS office located in Clarendon.

Claude DeBord asked regarding the property tax collected by the county how much of it was from the tax on personal property. Hall said it amounted to about $90,000.

DeBord also asked how much the county budgeted to run the appraisal district. County officials said that they pay a portion of the expenses of the appraisal district and that amount is determined by what taxes they collect. This year the county has budgeted $45,000 for this purpose.

Enterprise publisher Roger Estlack inquired why the sheriff’s department’s employment taxes were budgeted lower than last year when the budget for salaries went up. After some figuring, officials realized they had not calculated the employment taxes for budgeted overtime wages.

The difference amounted to $2,296.38, and moved the overall proposed budget from a $97.66 surplus to a $2,198.72 deficit. Officials said after the meeting they would look over the budget and try to figure how to make up the shortfall.

Jacquetta Owens recalled that the appraisal district offices used to be in the Courthouse Annex and asked if that wasn’t cheaper than having them in their own office building. Hall said the appraisal district now pays rent to the county for that facility.

Owens also asked about having the chief appraiser doing the property appraisals instead of hiring an out of county firm to do this. Hall said that was not an issue for the commissioners’ court and would have to be addressed by the appraisal board.