BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas — Brazos County officials are in the process of gathering the 2023-2024 budget that commissioners will vote on later this year, which includes adjusting the tax rate.
While taxes didn’t increase last year, some taxpayers are worried that might not be the case this year.
One year after a contentious standoff between commissioners led to Brazos County defaulting to a "no new revenue" rate, the tax rate discussion is set to reopen this week.
Brazos County Commissioner Steve Aldrich hopes his colleagues don't plan to increase taxes this year — he says the county has millions of dollars in unreserved funds.
“If we were able to not increase taxes last year, and it generated a significant surplus, why should we increase taxes this year?”, Aldrich said.
By not increasing taxes for the upcoming year, Aldrich says there would be a projected $21 million budget surplus. Brazos County Judge Duane Peters said while the county would have a surplus of funds, that the money comes from projects that were supposed to be done back in 2020.
“We didn’t know how Covid was going to affect us long term — nobody was prepared for a 20% increase which is what the appraisal district said it was," Peters said.
"When the projects that get scheduled get done - that fund balance will go away.”
Commissioners are set to have a workshop discussing adjusting the tax rate on Thursday.