By Steve Knight/reporter3@trcle.com
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Johnson County has joined the dubious national trend of tumbling property values, translating into a $1.4 billion decrease in taxable values in the county.
Johnson County Tax Assessor Collector Scott Porter told commissioners late Monday that mineral values have dropped $1.2 billion, personal property value decreased $342 million and the average home value in the county dropped by $400.
The decreased revenue gives Johnson County commissioners the difficult task of bridging an estimated $4.5 million budget shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year. In all likelihood, commissioners said, they’ll do that by cutting department budgets, dipping into the fund balance and, yes, raising taxes.
Raising taxes will be a last resort, said Johnson County Judge Roger Harmon, who told county management figures in the spring to expect a 5 percent decrease in department budgets.
“I don’t want this court to look like Washington: You need more money? Just raise taxes. I don’t like that philosophy and I don’t think the American people like that,” he said Tuesday. “I think you’re seeing a rallying of voters saying, ‘Hey, cut your budget before you raise taxes.’ And I think that’s what we should do. I’m hoping I can get the court to do that.”
He seems to have a consensus of the court about that, though all admitted that some tough decisions lay ahead.
“I was expecting a revenue decrease due to the economy. We knew that property values were down,” Precinct 1 Commissioner Rick Bailey said. “We can put this [budget] together and make something happen. We are not taking anything lightly. We need to make the right decisions.”
Johnson County Judge Roger Harmon estimated that the county will receive $3.8 million less this year in ad valorem taxes and $685,000 less in road and bridge taxes.
“This budget is going to take the cooperation of every court member,” Harmon told commissioners. “We have a short period to get this resolved. There’s going to be some pain with it.”
Precinct 2 Commissioner John Matthews told Harmon that he didn’t see many obvious areas to cut.
“There’s not a lot of fat in the department budgets,” he said. “We have cut from them until they are squeaky lean the last several years.”
Porter told commissioners that to maintain current revenue commissioners would have to institute a 6 cent per $100 valuation tax increase.
A tax increase is certainly possible, though even with an increase most property owners could pay the same amount because of declining property values.
Harmon, however, said he will not accept a 6 cent increase.
“I am not in favor of saying, ‘Hey, let’s just raise taxes to get there.’ I think that first item on the agenda is to see where we can cut this budget. We did that somewhat [Tuesday], but there is a lot more we can do,” he said. “We are going to have to go back and look at each individual budget and analyze everything. I think to adopt this budget, it’s probably going to take a tax increase, fund some of it with our fund balance and then with cuts. It’s going to take all three of those to pass this budget.”
What to cut, Harmon said, won’t be easy decisions, what with rising costs in operating the law enforcement center, court-appointed attorneys, health insurance, worker’s compensation, unemployment taxes and indigent health care.
The court will continue conducting budget workshops Wednesday and possibly into Thursday.
Commissioners did take action on one item Tuesday, an addendum to a management services contract for the county’s law enforcement center with LaSalle Southwest Corrections.
Under the addendum, the county will pay $43.85 cents per inmate per day with a minimum of 484 inmates, $3 more per day than the contract with Community Education Centers, which could cost the county $500,000 more per year.
Billy McConnell, LaSalle managing director, said the jail needs to maintain a minimum number of inmates for the contract to be financially viable and that the company would work to bring in more inmates from other counties and under custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service, bringing the county’s per diem rate down.
The county would receive $5 for each U.S. Marshal inmate and for each ICE inmate after 100.
The Dripping Springs-based company took over jail operations on June 1.
