Money for constables’ raises found in IT budget
The Hays County Commissioners Court decided to use savings found in the Information Technology department’s budget to pay for the raises that three county constables received after a unanimous decision by a county salary grievance committee.
At its meeting Tuesday, the court approved the county budget and tax rate for Fiscal Year 2019, but first, it held a final public hearing on the county budget. Representatives from Prevent A Litter (PALS) of Central Texas, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) and the Price Center were among those asking for more funds from the county for FY19.
When it came to discussing ways to find the $22,563 needed to fund the constables’ pay raises, the commissioners’ options were limited.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Lon Shell said he did not want to take money from someone’s budget to pay for the increases and favored using the IT savings to make up the difference. Several items that were in the budget could be taken out and considered one-time capital expenses that would be paid for with the county’s fund balance, county staff said, noting that the 2019 budget is a lean one.
The constables for precincts 1, 3 and 4 were granted pay increases from $67,762 per year to $74,000 per year. Initially, the constables had requested an increase to an annual salary of about $93,000, but no salary increases for the constables were included in the budget. A salary grievance committee convened and voted unanimously to raise the three grieving constables’ salaries to $74,000. Because the decision was unanimous, under state law, the commissioners had to grant the pay raise.
In related business, the commissioners approved the annual salaries and allowances for the county’s elected officials. The numbers for FY 2019 show that the top paid elected officials are the two county court-at-law judges, with salaries of $145,000. Justices of the peace have salaries of $66,686, the commissioners have salaries of $82,152, and the county judge has a salary of $88,506. The county sheriff’s annual salary is $105,395, the county clerk and district clerk each make $83,322, the tax assessor-collector earns $91,057, and the county treasurer’s annual salary is $79,509.
The FY 2019 budget will raise 1.96 percent more revenue ($1.4 million) through property taxes than the previous year’s budget. The amount to be raised from new property added to the tax rolls is almost $3.8 million. The approved tax rate is 43.37 cents per $100 of valuation, with 26.53 cents going toward general maintenance and operations, 12.46 cents for general debt and 4.38 percent for road and bridge maintenance and operations.
