CAMERON—Milam County has its certification of 2018 preliminary values and it’s not good news, according to County Judge Dave Barkemeyer.
Barkemeyer said, even at the same 70-cent county tax rate, revenues look to be down about $1.7 million.
“For all of Milam County and the net taxable value has decreased to $1.509 billion, with the freeze adjusted value being at $1.274 billion,” Barkemeyer said.
He said Chief Appraiser Dyann White’s estimate of final value for 2018—the estimate of what values will be after the settlement of all protests—is $1.439 billion net taxable and $1.204 billion freeze adjusted taxable.
“The 2017 values after the settlement of the Luminant law suit and after resolution of all protests were $1.634 billion net taxable and $1.442 billion freeze,” Barkemeyer said.
HIKES, CUTS—“If the commissioners court were to raise the county’s tax rate to 75 cents per $100 of valuation, an increase of five cents, we would raise about $600,000 in additional taxes,” he said.
“If we went to 80 cents, which is the maximum tax rate that a county is allowed to assess by state law, we would raise an additional $1.2 million,” Barkemeyer said.
“That is still a half million short of the amount needed to have the same revenue available as we had this year,” he added.
Barkemeyer said since there are no other additional significant sources of revenue available to the county, only one option appears to be available.
“This means that Milam County government must cut our budget expenditures and thus our county services, even if we raise county taxes to the 80-cent maximum rate.” he said.
“I’ll point out again that these figures are ‘preliminary’ and ‘estimated,’ but never-the-less they indicate where we’re headed,” Barkemeyer said.
“I will keep you posted as county officials and the commissioners court proceed to plan the 2019 budget and decide how to deal with this dilemma,” he said.
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