Llano commissioners weigh cost vs employee retention

BY PHIL REYNOLDS

THE HIGHLANDER

Llano County commissioners are struggling to put together a budget while faced with rising costs and hearing that some county employees are leaving for higher-paying jobs in neighboring counties.

Commissioners held the second of two budget workshops on Tuesday, Aug. 2. They’re looking at a draft budget of $14,466,433, an increase of $370,323, or about 2.6 percent, over this year’s budget.

But they also heard Llano County Sheriff Bill Blackburn say that in the past few weeks he’s lost several deputies to higher-paying jobs, including both investigators who handle child sexual abuse cases.

“In one case, they’re being offered $14,000 a year more than we’re paying,” Blackburn said. “I can’t blame them for moving.”

Blackburn told commissioners several county offices hinge on how well the sheriff’s office does its job.

“(The sheriff) is the gasoline that runs this county,” he said. “Without the sheriff’s office, there’s no need for district courts, the district attorney, or other offices.”

Asked by Precinct 4 Commissioner Jerry Don Moss if he had a dollar amount that would let his office compete with other sheriff’s offices, Blackburn replied, “No, I’m still in shock from losing people.” However, he said he would try to supply that number.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Linda Raschke pointed out that commissioners had given county employees a “pay adjustment” as recently as the past spring.

One thing commissioners have said they want to do in future budgets is to separate employee base salaries from such other things as longevity pay.

In some cases, people have been hired (as replacement employees) for the same rate as their predecessors – base pay including longevity, County Judge Mary Cunningham said.

Commissioners said they expect to set a tax rate and adopt a budget at their regular meeting at 9 a.m. Monday, Aug. 8, although as of Tuesday’s workshop missing variables meant they still hadn’t nailed down either an effective tax rate or a rollback tax rate.

The effective tax rate is the rate that would produce the same amount of taxes if applied to the same properties taxed in both years, according to the Texas Comptroller’s Office. It allows comparing current taxes with proposed taxes.

The rollback tax rate calculation splits the tax rate into two separate components - a maintenance and operations (M&O) rate and a debt service rate. M&O includes such things as salaries, utilities and day-to-day operations. Debt service covers the interest and principal on bonds and other debt secured by property tax revenues. The rollback tax rate is the sum of the current M&O rate plus 8 percent, and the debt service rate. If a taxing unit adopts a tax rate that exceeds the rollback tax rate, voters in the taxing unit may petition for an election on the tax increase.

Cunningham said she expects to have both numbers before the Monday meeting.

The current tax rate is 23.3162 cents per $100 property valuation. That amounts to about $463.20 in annual county property taxes on a $200,000 home.

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In a story in the Friday, Aug. 5, edition of The Highlander, it was erroneously stated that the Llano County tax raste is 23.3162 cents per $100 property valuation and that tax on a $200,000 home would amount to $4632.00 in taxes.

The current tax rate in Llano County is 31.62 cents per $100 and taxes on a $200,000 home would amount to $632.40. The Highlander regrets the error.