Collin County proposes a “flat” 2010 budget

by Bill Baumbach of The Collin County Observer

Last week, after two days of budget hearings, the Collin County Commissioners' Court recommended a "no tax rate increase" budget for fiscal year 2010 which begins October 1, 2009.

Total combined budget (all funds) will be just under $270 million, and the operating funds budget will be about $174 million -- which is a small (less than 1%) increase over last year. The budget balances revenues to expenses so that no deficit or draw down from reserves is anticipated. (The county has over 300 days of reserves -- close to a full year's operating budget.)

The county expects total revenues of $270 million, of which $174.2 million is from property taxes, and the balance is from fines, user fees, and service charges.

Since the tax rate remained the same, but average property values declined, the typical homeowner will pay about $3.20 less in county taxes next year as opposed to this year.

The county will employ 1,093 employees and the employees will get an average 2% salary increase; however elected officials will get no raises in 2010.

Some highlights from the two-day workshop included department heads who were appealing items that had already been cut from the proposed budget.

- The first appeal was made by Precinct 1 Constable Paul Elkins, who wanted $1,400, in part to pay for a camera to be used in traffic and illegal dumping enforcement. The constable told the commissioners that these items would pay for themselves with just 17 collected traffic fines averaging $82 each. He got the money.

- Next was retiring District Clerk Hannah Kunkle who asked for an delinquent tax collection clerk. The position would be paid 1/2 by attorney David McCall (who has the contract to collect delinquent taxes for the county). Kunkle offered to pay the other half from the document preservation fund, which are fees collected from all users of the clerk's office. The document preservation fund currently has a balance of $600,000; the court will readdress this at the budget hearings. They wanted a legal opinion on whether the use of preservation funds would be legal.

- Judge Johnny Lewis, the justice of the Peace in Plano's JP court 3-1, asked for an additional clerk. Once again, he used fines revenue to justify his need for additional resources. Judge Lewis noted that in 2005 his court had a budget of $270,000 and collected $260,000 in fines. But in 2009 the budget was $318,000 while collected fines and fees were over $800,000.

Later, on Tuesday, the court moved one clerk from Judge Raleeh's Court to Precinct 2 in Wylie, and one clerk from Judge Yarbrough to Plano. Judge Raleeh volunteered, but the pull from Yarbrough was imposed by the court.

The total number of constable deputies will remain the same, but Precinct 2 Constable Joe Barton and Precinct 3 Constable Chuck Presley will each gain one deputy, and Precinct 1 and Precinct 4 will each give up one.

It was just last week that Presley told the Commissioners that he could begin traffic patrol because his staff had free time.

Commissioner Joe Jaynes told the court that he was concerned that constables working traffic had effective policies in place to avoid issues such as the chase that occurred in Dallas last month.

The shuffling of JPs and constables is the direct result of the redistricting done earlier this year.

- District Attorney John Roach asked for additional staff in the family services division. Two positions were put into a contingency fund, until the caseload numbers could be verified and tracked.

-Tax Assessor Collector Kenneth Maun requested six additional staff, but under intense questioning led by Commissioner Matt Shaheen, Maun could not quantify any savings gained from new technologies implemented in 2009, nor did he have any data on costs of not getting the new clerks. He got nothing.

-Health Administrator Candy Blair found herself defending her budget, since her actual spending has been much lower than budget.

Jerry Hoagland objected to the Health Care budget, saying that the Health Care Trust Fund was spending more than its income. He wanted to lower the maximum income standard for indigent care, eliminate the non-profit grants and the Prima Care programs. He didn't get his way.

In the end, the court cut $500,000 from the health care department budget that they felt was simply padding. The court did tell Blair that if an emergency required more funds, she could come back to the court later in the year and request additional funds.

-The was a lot of discussion over professional memberships. The court did discuss pulling out of the Texas Association of Counties.

Judge Self and Commissioner Shaheen have disagreements with some of the positions TAC has taken in its lobbying efforts. At one point Judge Self stated, "[The TAC] seem to spend all their time fighting tax cuts for citizens."

After much discussion, the $2,400 membership dues to TAC was approved, as was the $19,000 in dues to the Conference of Urban counties. However Collin County will pull out of the regional planning coalition, TEX21.

Other departments will be required to limit membership to three professional organizations.

-The were a few sharp exchanges over two proposals by Judge Keith Self to cut staff -- in the Agriculture Extension Office and in County Administration. Self justified both cuts because he said that the ratio of support staff to professionals was too high. Self took umbrage at comments made by both Joe Jaynes and Kathy Ward, who stated that the cuts were being made "because you can" and without any supporting data. The court defeated both personnel cuts in a 3-2 vote.

There will be two public hearings on the proposed budget: Monday, September 14 at 9:30 a.m. and Monday September 21 at 6:30 p.m..

The final budget will be approved at the September 28 meeting and go into effect on October 1.