Increased Property Values & Sales Tax Cited For Proposed Reduction in Hopkins County Tax Rate
A 10% pay increase for all county employees, and funding for additional positions for the sheriff’s office, and an additional position within the clerk’s office were among the items projected in the 2022-2023 county budget. Increased property values and sales tax returns were cited for a propose reduction in Hopkins County tax rate for the coming year.
Tax Rate
Hopkins County Tax Assessor/Collector Debbie Mitchell proposed a tax rate of $0.5239 per $100 property value, lower than the approved rates over the preceding 10 years, beginning with the 2012-2013 fiscal year (2012 tax year). The county tax rate rose from $0.560575 during the 2012 and 2013 tax years to $0.612075 during the 2014 tax year, then $0.627392 during the 2015 and 2016 tax years. The Hopkins County property tax rate declined to $0.624892 in tax years 2017, and remained that rate through tax year 2020. The county tax rate declined to $0.584035 per $100 property valuation in 2021 and is proposed to dip again in tax year 2022 (fiscal year 2022-2023) to $0.5239.
The proposed 2022-2023 tax rate factors in projected tax revenues, including $306,182 in new property added to the tax roll in 2022. Overall, the total property valuation for 2022 on Hopkins County tax rolls is $2,757,459,159.
The 2022 no-new revenue tax rate per $100 property valuation is projected to be $0.5019 per $100 valuation, down from 2021 NNR tax rate of $0.561139. The non-new revenue tax rate is the rate the taxing unit needs to generate about the same amount of revenue they received in the previous year if the rate was applied to the same amount of properties in both years. If property values rise, the NNR tax rate will go down and vice versa.
The voter approval tax rate is projected at $0.523981 per $100 property valuation, down from $0.585726 per $100 value. The voter approval tax rate is the amount at which taxing units are required to get voter approval before they exceed the tax rate. The maximum rate varies based on the type of jurisdiction. Cities and counties can increase the tax rate 3 1/2% for operating expenses. Junior college districts, hospital districts, and special taxing units can increase their tax rates up to eight percent for operating expenses. School district funding calculations and the debt tax rate influence the voter-approval tax rate for school districts, according to Texas.gov.
The proposed 52.39-cent tax rate valuation per $100 property valuation includes $0.5039 for general, road and bridge and debt service funds 30.5227-cents in gross revenue going toward the general fund, 14 cents to road and bridge maintenance, 1 cent each for road and bridge special fund and farm to market special fund, and 5.8673 cents to the debt service fund. That should generate $13,894,837 for the general funds, $275,946 each in estimated tax revenue for the road and bridge and farm to market special funds.
That would be $14,446,329 in estimated gross tax revenue, provided every penny billed in county property taxes is collected. That is unrealistic, so the proposed tax rate factors in up to 4% ($577,861) of total tax revenues will go uncollected, while $200,000 in net delinquent taxes and $175,00 in penalties an interest revenue are projected to come in during the 2022-2023 fiscal year and 2022 tax year. That would provide the county with $14,243,667 in projected revenues.
The increased property values and increase in sales taxes raised provide extra funding that will allow the budget to be balanced and meet the $1.6 million in debt obligation secured by property taxes.
“All of the counties around us are going up [on tax rate], so it’s huge that we get to do a decrease like this,” Aulsbrook said.
Budget
The 2022-2023 budget is expected to include $602,161 more in property tax revenues than the 2021-2022 tax revenues raised from Oct. 1, 2021 to Sept. 30, 2022, a 4.35% increase.
Proposed is a 10% salary increase for elected county officials and county employees for the fiscal year 2022-2023, in addition to the incremental longevity pay of $100 to eligible elected county officials and employees for an additional year of service.
Hopkins County Justice of the Peace 1 and Hopkins County Justice of the Peace 2 will receive a $1,000 increase in auto allowance, allowing for increased fuel costs.
The proposed FY 2022-2023 budget also includes two additional employees for the sheriff’s office, one additional jail employee and one additional sheriff’s office employee.
FY 2022-23 budget as proposed also includes an additional position within the County Clerk’s Office to assist with elections work; the County Clerk serves as elections coordinator, in addition to the traditional duties of the clerk’s office. The additional position is for someone to help handle the increasing duties that go along with conducting elections.
The county is also now required to fully fund 3 fulltime firefighter positions added to the county fire department a couple of years ago. This is part of a multi-year grant program which has covered most of these salaries.
Hopkins County Auditor Shannah Aulsbrooks noted that the proposed 2022-2023 budget does not include anything from any solar farms, as it’s yet to be determined when they will go online and, with extensions of incentive contracts granted to multiple project developers, when those will be added to the tax rolls.
Another public hearing was set for 9 a.m. Aug. 22. There could be changes to the proposed budget between times depending on planning and information gleaned and needs presented before then.
The budget proposal estimated county revenues to be $15.8 million for FY 2022-2023, up from $14.9 in FY 2021-2022 and $13.5 million in FY 2020-2021.
