BASTROP COUNTY APPROVES $40.5M BUDGET FOR NEXT FISCAL YEAR

Proposed tax rate lower, but residents will pay more from rise in property valuations.

Bastrop County commissioners on Monday ratified a $40.5 million operating budget for fiscal year 2018-19 funded by a tax rate of 57.99 cents per $100 property valuation.

Monday was the fourth time the Commissioners Court met to discuss the budget after beginning deliberations in mid-August. In this final draft of the budget proposal, commissioners proposed no changes from its previous iteration.

The county’s proposed tax rate will lower from 58.97 cents to 57.99 cents per $100 property valuation but the average homeowner can expect to pay $43 more on their annual county tax bill as property valuations increased by 6 percent on average this year.

For property owners in Bastrop County to not have a tax increase on their annual tax bill, commissioners would have to adopt the effective rate — 57.59 cents — which would impose the same total taxes as the previous year when compared to properties taxed in both years.

Next year’s $40.5 million budget is down from last year’s $44 million budget, which also raised taxes while lowering the tax rate.

“That rate has slightly decreased from last year, just like the general fund,” said Bastrop County Judge Paul Pape. “So, the citizens of Bastrop County are getting a little savings on their tax rate.”

With 2018 home values averaging $185,683, the county will collect over $1.2 million in additional revenue from property taxes.

The only sticking point throughout the process was regarding pay raises for employees at Bastrop County district courts.

At the urging of district court judges who said their employees needed a raise commensurate with their increased workload, Pape said last month that he would assemble a committee to consider each pay raise request on a caseby-case basis, and set aside $20,000 for salary bumps.

Pape later backtracked from his decision, saying he did not want to “open up Pandora’s box” by awarding raises to some employees and not others.

“We’re all busy, and some of us have been busier this year than ever before because of circumstances beyond our control,” Pape said last month. “That’s what we do, and I don’t know that every year when we happen to be busy we can justify adjusting a base salary, because when you don’t get so busy in the future, it’s pretty hard to take that money back. I don’t mean to be hardnosed about it, I’m just saying without strong justification, I have a hard time honoring salary increases.”

Budget highlights

On average, a 5 percent raise will be given to all Bastrop County deputies and jailers through an aggregation of increases. A 1 percent increase will be added to all law enforcement officers’ base salaries; 1 percent will be added the increased cost of living; a $600 per year cellphone stipend will be given; and all officers and jailers will be eligible for up to a 4 percent merit-based raise.

All county employees will be given a 1 percent raise for higher cost-of-living rates in the county.

A medical practitioner previously working in the jail under contract will be made a staff employee.

An allocation of $1.1 million will fund 12 new full-time positions and five part-time positions that will be upgraded to full time.