Commissioners Court News Briefs
BY GINA KEATING | EDITOR
Young County property owners will get a pleasant surprise on their tax bills next month after county commissioners rescinded the debt service tax for the county jail at their Aug. 22 budget workshop.
The county will make its final principal and interest payment of about $781,000 on the 15-year-old jail on Feb. 15, 2023. Rather than extending the debt service tax of about 4 cents per $100 property valuation for an additional fiscal year, the commissioners decided to apply unspent funds from the current budget to the last payment.
Property tax bills will go out on Oct. 1 without the debt service tax for the first time since 2006, when the Commissioners Court funded the Young County Jail at 3315 N. Cliff Dr. with $9.5 million in certificates of obligation, County Judge John Bullock said.
“[The jail] will be paid off in Feb. 2023 and we chose not to assess a debt tax for the 2022 tax year, which funds our ensuing budget,” Judge Bullock said. “[The commissioners] saw in their most current budget the ability to shorten that debt service by a year.”
The Commissioners used reserve funds built up over several years to pay the $12.5 million total cost of the jail, which opened in 2007, Judge Bullock said. In 2014, the county refinanced the certificates of obligation to get a lower interest rate and to save taxpayers $250,000 in interest, Judge Bullock said. The interest rates on the certificates of obligation, which matured on different dates, were high as 7 percent, he said.
Young County has no other long-term bond debt on its books and holds about 30-35 percent of its $19 million budget in reserve, he said.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Stacey Rogers said the court has been chipping away at the debt for years.
“Last year, we took fund balances and decreased the debt service rate to the 4-cent range, and this year we are going to take all fund balances and pay the last payments so there will be no debt service rate added to the total tax rate this year,” Mr. Rogers said.
The county’s property tax relief comes six months after voters overwhelmingly approved two state constitutional amendments that hold down property taxes for seniors and disabled people, and boost the homestead exemption on school taxes from $25,000 to $40,000 amid skyrocketing property valuations in North Texas. Those measures are expected to lower property taxes by an average of $175 per property owner. Mr. Rogers said it is not clear whether or how much the debt service abatement will affect property taxes.
“It’s on an individual basis. We can’t declare a saving across the board for everyone,” he said. “We do know the tax rate will decrease but it’s a high probability that your taxable value did go up.”
The commissioners are set to approve a new property tax rate after they approve the county budget for fiscal year 2023 at their Aug. 29 meeting.