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Commissioners begin fine-tuning

County Budget
Tuesday, August 7, 2018

The Hays County Commissioners Court began the budget review process on Tuesday with the first of two budget workshops. 

Precinct 1 Commissioner Debbie Gonzales Ingalsbe called the county judge’s recommended budget “lean.”

“This is the first time I’ve seen a budget that didn’t have a lot of the requests within the judge’s budget,” she said. 

Before the commissioners got into the particulars of the budget and the requests that different county departments are making, they discussed some overarching ideas. Precinct 3 Commissioner Lon Shell said that the jail and its staffing requests will be an important part of the county’s budget decisions.

“I think that will be my primary focus — that we put the effort into making sure that when that jail opens, it’s properly staffed,” he said.

“I know that training is very important to the sheriff and to the operation of the new facility,” Ingalsbe added. 

Shell said he would like to hear the strategy for training and staffing for the new jail.

“We’re going to a new system — direct supervision — so that’s going to require training of all of our current officers as well as new officers,” he said. 

Shell also said he is reluctant to fund positions that start in the middle of the fiscal year to make up for funding shortages. For instance, he said, if there is money for one position, sometimes the county approves two positions that start halfway through the year and that eventually means there are two whole positions that require funding.

“I’d like to maybe take a look at that policy,” he said.

Shell also said he wants to make sure the county’s courts are properly staffed to handle case loads.

“Obviously, the district attorney’s office is involved in some of those issues,” he said. 

Shell also said he is against any salary increases for elected officials.

“I definitely don’t think we should be leading our market in elected official pay,” he said. “... We’re not leading our market right now, and I’m fine with that.”

Commissioners decided to drop the merit pool— the fund for pay raises — to 2 percent from the 3 percent in the recommended budget and to exclude elected officials. 

Commissioners will hold a second budget workshop on Aug. 14. On Aug. 21, they will take action on budget requests from the county’s departments and propose an effective tax rate for Fiscal Year 2019. 

The judge’s recommended budget can be seen at https://www.co.hays.tx.us/financial-transparency.aspx under “7-FY 2019 Budget Planning” in the Auditor’s Reports. 

San Marcos Record

(512) 392-2458
P.O. Box 1109, San Marcos, TX 78666