County proposes $1.75 per hour COLA
BY CONNIE CLEMENTS
Examiner reporter
During a Budget Workshop Monday, Aug. 15, Grimes County Commissioners agreed 3-1 in favor of the cost of living adjustment (COLA) for county employees proposed by County Judge Joe Fauth. Fauth’s original proposal of 5% was revised to $1.75 per hour with five lieutenant and sergeant positions in the Grimes County Sheriff’s Office (GSCO) slated for $2.25 per hour.
Fauth cited discussions with Human Resources and other department heads concerned about the impact of the health insurance premium increase on employees at the lower end of the pay scale.
Fauth said, “Because we’ve had an increase in insurance costs, if you give some of the employees a 5% cost of living adjustment, they’ll get about $0.63 per hour increase. The other thing with a 5% across the board, it gives the higher end of the payroll more money, the lower end less money. That’s kind of the opposite of what we need to be doing at this time.”
As for the GCSO, Fauth said, “By giving them the $2.25 adjustment, it seemed to give the separation that was needed and justify an individual moving from one position to another.” Commissioner Phillip Cox presented his proposal for a 3.5% COLA plus a one-time stipend of $2,760 to mitigate the impact of infl ation and higher dependent health premiums. Cox said, “It addresses the increase in the insurance. It also allows for a little bit of a raise and it keeps our grade scale in line with where we would be looking if it weren’t for inflation. A stipend puts money in the employee’s hands almost immediately.”
Cox recommended paying for the stipend out of Fund Balance. Faced with a tight deadline for public notice of the elected officials salary grievance process Sept. 7, Fauth and Commissioners David Dobyanski and Chad Mallett provided a majority in favor of the $1.75 per hour increase. Commissioner Barbara Walker was absent.
Low tax rate proposed
Fauth also unveiled his proposed tax and collection rates saying, “Our current tax rate is $0.526933. I am proposing we go to a $0.48 which is a reduction of $0.046933.”
The 2022 no-new-revenue rate is $0.445422/$100. This is the tax rate which would provide the same revenue as the previous year on properties taxed both years.
The voter-approval-rate is $0.496778/$100 and is the maximum tax rate allowed by law without voter approval.
Grimes County has $4,385,644,901 in taxable property of which $59,324,019 is under protest. According to Grimes Central Appraisal District (GCAD) Chief Appraiser Mark Boehnke, most is residential and prompted by Navasota ISD’s removal of the LOHE (Local Option Homestead Exemption). Fauth said based on discussions with the GCAD, he’s recommending increasing the collection rate from 96.5% to 97%. While the court had approved the creation of several new positions at a previous meeting, those figures were not included in the budget draft. Per Auditor Jessi Murphy’s request, another workshop will be scheduled. At present, the 2022-2023 budget is $31,048,237.39.
UIs
Commissioners also received a report from the Assistant Chief Appraiser Shannon Sanders about Grimes County’s Unused Increment Rate (UI) which amounts to 3-plus cents.
A taxing entity accrues UIs when the adopted tax rate is less than the voter-approved rate and they can be used to increase the voter-approval tax rate, depending upon the tax rates adopted by a city in the previous three years. The UIs must be used within three years or they will be lost. For more information on UIs, go to https://comptroller. texas.gov/taxes/property- tax/truth-in-taxation/ calculations.php.