The Louie Minor Show
Texas politics from Killeen to Belton to Austin and beyond. Join the conservation with Bell County Commissioner Pct 4 Louie Minor as we dive deep into local government. Interviews with community leaders and the public.
The Louie Minor Show
Budget Battles and Barking Mad: Inside Bell County Politics
Bell County Commissioner Louie Minor provides an in-depth look at the upcoming Commissioner's Court agenda and discusses the county's proposed budget, tax rates, and ongoing animal shelter controversy.
• Detailed walkthrough of the August 18th Commissioner's Court agenda including consent items, departmental submissions, and workshop items
• Update on the failed motion to fund an outreach coordinator position at the Bell County Animal Shelter despite high euthanasia rates
• Overview of the proposed FY 2025-2026 budget with a decrease in property tax rate to the "no new revenue" rate of $33.27 per $100 valuation
• Explanation of state-imposed unfunded mandates, particularly the 100% disabled veterans property tax exemption
• Insights from Commissioner Minor's visit to Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter and their successful animal welfare programs
• Information about the upcoming PAW (Public Accountability for Animal Welfare) rally on August 20th at 5pm followed by the tax rate public hearing at 6pm
• Discussion of the county's capital improvement projects including jail expansion and mental health unit
Join us at the upcoming public hearings on August 20th and 25th to make your voice heard on these important county issues.
Welcome. You're listening to the Louie Miner Show. I'm your host. Bell County Commissioner, louie Miner, today is August 17th 2025. We have a lot to cover. So let's go over the agenda real quick and then we'll get into what happened last week if you've been following the animal shelter and then what's going on next week. So for Monday, the 18th meeting of the Commissioner's Court, beginning at 9 am, we have the invocation, pledge of allegiance and then consent agenda items, the regular minutes for Monday, august that should be 11, 2000, or August 18, 2025. And then consider approval of the August 4th 2025 and August 11th 2025. Meeting of the Commissioner's Court Personnel, budget amendments, claims, accounts, payable, payroll, restitution, jury pay. Then we have departmental submissions. Consider authorizing the county judge to execute a settlement participation agreement with the Texas Attorney General's Office concerning the statewide opioid settlement agreement with Purdue Pharma LP and the Sackler family of the FY26 Feral Hog Program. Hog Abatement Grant application in the amount of $5,525 with a funding match required of $0 for Bell County Health. Feral Hog Abatement to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Services. Designated the Bell County judge as the authorized official agent for the grant. Then for receiving update from on the bell core habitat conservation plan. Then we have five county engineer 5a. Consider and approve the final plat Levi Acres being a 10.968 acre 3 lot 1 block subdivision located in Precinct 1. 5b. Consider and approve a final plat of Little Joseph Ranch being a 19.997 acre 16 lot 1 block subdivision located in Precinct 3. 16-lot one-block subdivision located in Precinct 3. 5c. Consider and approve the final plat of Woodford Salado being a 55.017-acre 12-lot one-block subdivision located in Precinct 2. And then consider and approve the Stennett Mills Estate Phase 2, mills Estate Phase 2 being a 28.19 acre 36 lot 5 block subdivision located in Precinct 2. Then we have regular agenda items. Consider an order giving notice relating to the November 4, 2025 constitutional amendment special elections pursuant to section 3.00 of the Texas Election Code. Consider authorizing the county judge to sign Riverside Trail Design Proposal from KPA Engineers for Professional Services at a cost of $687,000 from precinct funds and associated budget amendments. Precinct funds and associated budget amendments. Consider authorizing the county judge to sign MRB group proposal for professional services designed for Bell County Radio Shop Avenue O Belton for $77,600, funded by CIP. For $77,600. Funded by CIP. And then consider the appointment of Landy Setzer, michael Welsh, glenn Willis, jay Pruitt and Jerry Lancaster To the Bell County Emergency Service District Two as board members. That is everything for our regular agenda. Then we have our workshop Immediately following that is reports and updates from various county offices and departments Capital improvement projects update on jail expansion and temporary jail facilities.
Speaker 1:Capital Improvement Projects Update on Jail Expansion and Temporary Jail Facilities. The Killeen Annex Discuss FY 2025 CIP Plan. Then we have items Commissioner Departmental Submissions Discuss City of Temple Proposed Agreement for Municipal Services in the City of Temple. Proposed agreement for municipal services in the City of Temple for 4.8607 plus or minus acres of land and the right-of-way in the city. Extraterritorial jurisdiction agreement to annex approximately 1.302 plus or minus acres of land in the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction. Then we have review and discuss jail efficiency and efficiency study report by CGL. Then we have discuss FY 2026 CIP projects.
Speaker 1:Then we go into closed session for update on courtroom security and employees emergency safety response initiatives and that is everything. And then we have meetings that the commissioners may attend. We have August 25th, bell County Extension Education Association of the Texas AgriLife, texas A&M AgriLife Extension Luncheon. Then we have August 27th Retirement Reception for Dirk Aaron Clearwater Board. August 27th through 29th 2025, legislative Conference in Austin. That is, tac, texas Association of Counties.
Speaker 1:Then, october 14th we have Bell County Committee for Peoples with Disability. And that is everything for the workshop and the regular agenda. And that is everything for the workshop and the regular agenda. We do have a special meeting and that is on the 20th. It will be, let's see invocation pledge of allegiance to the flag. Presentation of the proposed FY 2025-26 budget. Then, item four conduct first public tax rate public hearing on the proposed FY 2025-2026 tax rate. For the agendas for this week. So what I want to do is go back to last week and just catch everyone up. If you remember last week's show, we talked about the animal shelter issues at the animal shelter and recommendations to fix that shelter and recommendations to fix that. So we had on the agenda discuss funding an outreach coordinator for the animal shelter. So let me play the clip of how that went from.
Speaker 2:Channel 6 that covered the meeting on Monday A push by animal advocates to fund a new position at the Bell County Animal Shelter failed today.
Speaker 3:The motion was denied at a special meeting of the Bell County Commissioner's Court this morning. 6 News reporter Sydney Walker was at that meeting and shares more on what locals and the sheriff had to say After reports of high euthanasia rates at the Bell County Animal Shelter. Local animal advocates have questions.
Speaker 2:Their answer A proposal for a new position the Bell County Animal Shelter. Bell County has grown tremendously, but the shelter is the same as it was in 2011. Is in hot water.
Speaker 3:Public transparency and trust, proper funding this is what the residents are seeking In data obtained by 6 News, 60 dogs and 126 cats were euthanized in June alone.
Speaker 2:Are 600 plus more animals going to be euthanized before the proper funding is approved With the help of Precinct?
Speaker 3:4.
Speaker 2:Commissioner Louie Miner advocates hoped to create a new position Funding a full-time outreach coordinator at $37,000 annually, plus benefits, will reduce cost, improve efficiency and strengthen public trust.
Speaker 4:A role under the commissioner's court, not the sheriff's department which runs the shelter help the sheriff immensely to have somebody whose only task is to try to find viable placement for animals at the shelter.
Speaker 3:The sheriff shouldn't worry about that. Sheriff Bill Cook noted struggles. I need some help out there. But efforts to hire another animal control officer also failed today.
Speaker 4:We have turned the corner. Give us just a little bit.
Speaker 3:While in support of the position. I am not pleased with our euthanasia rate right now. He believes there should be an animal shelter. We have turned the corner. Give us just a little bit, While in support of the position.
Speaker 4:I am not pleased with our euthanasia rate right now. He believes there should be an animal shelter separate from animal control. I can never assure you that it will be a no-kill facility.
Speaker 3:Regardless. Miner still supported the motion, while the rest of the court opposed. Conversations surrounding the animal shelter are expected to continue, despite today's failed motion. We'll keep you updated as this story continues In Belton, sydney Walker 6 News.
Speaker 1:Well, there you have it. Commissioners voted no on something that the citizens wanted. This is what they came up with Outreach coordinator to help start moving in the right direction on the animal shelter, and it was denied. And the public is starting to see how their local officials are. They want to wait, they want to push them off. They want to acknowledge their complaints, acknowledge their issues and say we're working on it and not do anything and hope that they forget. Hope the public forgets. The public is not going to forget this.
Speaker 1:621 and counting animals have been slaughtered under the Bell County Commissioner watch, allowing the sheriff to do this. So it's time for us to get involved, do something, and I like that. The animal rescues are organizing and doing something because they don't want animals dying left and know these are unhealthy, sick, aggressive dogs. I'm sure some of them are, but you got to keep in mind 621. There's no way that 621 animals are aggressive and that sick where they're not even given a chance.
Speaker 1:So on the 20th, remember we're having a special meeting in the evening for the budget, the group they're calling themselves PAW Public Accountability for Animal Welfare. They are hosting a rally at the Bell County Commissioner's Court Wednesday, august 20th at 5 pm and then immediately following that, they're going to attend the Bell County public hearing on the tax rate at six. So hopefully you come out and support them, support the animals, and let's make some change here in Bell County. You got to push for change, you got to fight for change, you got to advocate for change.
Speaker 1:Change is not just going to happen out of the blue. You have to get involved and you're doing it. You're doing it, paul, you are doing it. So I appreciate what you're doing, because that's the only way things are going to change, because that's the only way things are going to change. So at this last meeting that we had, the judge gave the presentation for their proposed budget and tax rate. So I'm going to play that in its entirety about your Bell County budget and tax rate for the upcoming FY25-26 year. So let me pull that up for you.
Speaker 5:All right, thank you, gordon. Next item is item four, which is presentation of the proposed FY2026 budget. It should be coming up on the screen right now and I don't have the clicker. Thank you, all right. This is our, again, presentation on the proposed budget. Preliminary budget for FY26. There is the Bell County mission statement. The government of Bell County, texas, exists to promote and sustain a sphere of quality of life for Central Texas. In partnership with our communities and our citizens, we pledge to deliver cost-effective services in a personal, responsive, innovative manner. I don't think that mission statement has changed in many, many, many years. This is your Commissioner's Court, along with our County Auditor, and all of those people are present here today. Since the Auditor's office puts this presentation together. We're going to do financial highlights first.
Speaker 5:Bond rating is an important factor whenever we put budgets together. Bond ratings are an indication of the financial health and strength of any entity. It's an outside agency or third party that rates the necessary finances to ensure that we're managing those properly and being good stewards of those dollars. County bond rating, by standard and course, is currently a double, double, a plus, which is a very strong rating. It's the second highest rating that you can get under the s? P rankings um. In my opinion it will be the highest rating that Bell County can ever receive. A higher rating would require substantially more assessed taxable value and just a much, much larger entity than what Bell County is today. So I think that's as high as we can go, given who we are. Factors that have elevated our bond rating to AA+ we've got a diversifying and expanding economic base, significant military presence, of course, with Fort Hood. We do have strong financial performance and we generally have adequate, very adequate, general fund reserves and a very moderate debt burden, with limited future capital needs that have been identified. Our unassigned fund balance in this proposed budget is four months reserve. Three months is the minimum according to our policy, so we're above that. We are among the lowest ad valorem property tax rates in the region and in the state. We are in excellent financial condition. The quote there, I think, comes from Standard Poor's, one of their bond rating reports, which is our financial condition is strong due to conservative budgeting practices. Standard Poor's states we view the county's management as very strong, with strong financial policies and practices. So again, all of that just to say that our financial position for the county is very strong.
Speaker 5:I always try to put in a population and growth chart to show what our county is doing really decade to decade, but in the middle of those decades, use whatever fiscal year. We're in For 2025, best estimate that I see for our population is about 404,000, so I think we have crossed the 400,000 population barrier number. Our growth rates for the past couple of decades have surpassed both the national growth rate as well as the state growth rate, so we are one of the fast growth counties in the state of Texas, which makes us one of the fast growth counties in the United States. This is property values for the past 10 plus years or so. I guess 10 or so years. This is taxable assessed values. Taxable assessed values are very, very important because we derive a significant portion of our revenue from property tax revenues, so assessed values that are taxable are key revenue indicators for us. The thing I would highlight about that chart is, again, continued growth. That's part of what that shows is taxable values that continue to grow.
Speaker 5:And then it's not a footnote, but in the bottom left-hand corner of that slide it's got the net increases that are due where those net increases come from. I was asking the auditor earlier today and this weekend about when was the last time we saw new value? Time we saw new value the taxable assessed value increase, attributable more to new values being added than reappraisals. We both think, I think that it's been more than a decade, 19. So 2019. So it's been several years since that has occurred. That's good news. Essentially. Again, it just further demonstrates the growth that is occurring in the county and the new growth that is occurring in the county. So 51% of that net increase is attributable to new values being added to tax rolls that weren't on the tax rolls last year. Oh sorry, I don't know how to go back. Can you go backwards for me on that? Yeah, the other thing that I was going to highlight on that slide was not since 2022, I guess, have we seen a single-digit increase in those values. In other words, we've had double-digit increases in assessed values over the past three fiscal years. I guess this year it's a single-digit, but again, most of that is tributary value. So I still think that is a good sign and a good indicator.
Speaker 5:Besides property taxes, sales tax receipts are also very important to us. Those two property tax revenue and sales tax receipts fund the majority of our revenue to operate the county 2025 projected revenue from sales tax is a little over $35 million. That's an increase of about 4%, a little more than 4% over 2024. So again, good indication of the economy. I always have to put a slide in because it's significant for us, it's significant for counties across the state, but it's more significant for some counties, I would argue, than others, and I'll have another slide that will follow. Just to highlight one of the reasons the state imposed services that the state requires the county to do but does not fund the county to do it, which means your local property taxes pay for this, and so I always try to have a slide in the deck that shows some of those areas where we have got state imposed costs to deliver a service or to do something that the state doesn't pay for.
Speaker 5:Top of that list, which I'll come right back to in a second, is the 100% disabled spouse property tax exemption. That equates now to about $0.45 on your property taxes. That is paid locally for that state-imposed exemption, and I don't think anyone up here in any year has argued against that exemption or indicated that the state shouldn't grant that exemption. It's just about who should pay for that exemption and if the state imposes it, then the state should pay for. That has been our position. In health care, the state requires us to provide health care to those that cannot afford or cannot acquire health care on their own. That equates to a little more than two and a half cents on your property tax rate. In terms of what we spend and you see the whole list there in terms of this year, our total tax rate all of those state mandated requirements cost around $40 million. That roughly equates to a little more than 10 cents of your property tax rate. That's approaching a third of your tax rate is for what the state requires us to do but does not provide funding to do this.
Speaker 5:One I want to highlight, because we've had multiple discussions, which was at the top of that list that I just showed you, was the Disabled Veterans, homestead and Survival and Spouse Tax Exemption. And again I want to reemphasize I don't think anyone up here argues that that exemption should not exist. We won't take that position at all. But you can see from 2009 and 2010, when that exemption was first authorized, all the way up to today, the growth in the number of exemptions across the county. We've gone from about 701 properties that are eligible for that exemption to now close to 17,000 properties across the county.
Speaker 5:That's significant growth in that exemption and you can also see the taxable value that gets exempted. It's significant. And then the reimbursement by the state, which is one of the things that we are appreciative of, is the state does offer some reimbursement for counties that are in cities that are disproportionately impacted, because we have a high number of veterans in this area and disabled veterans. That's understandable and obvious. But so the state years ago did offer some legislative relief on that, but they have never fully funded that relief. So they passed a law saying we will do this but did not fully fund that and they never have fully funded it. In this past year I think we budgeted about $2 million for reimbursement from the state. What's?
Speaker 3:the number In this current year two and a half.
Speaker 5:Two and a half In this upcoming year. We're anticipating, since the state just passed new legislation on this, that expanded eligibility. There are now going to be more entities applying for that state reimbursement but the amount of dollars that are going to be allocated, or that we believe will be allocated, will actually not make us whole, not even close to whole, and will actually result in a decrease in the reimbursement that we received this past year. So expanded eligibility but did not sufficiently expand the reimbursement funds that come from the state. That's a significant issue for Bell County. It's a significant issue for some cities in Bell County, and Killeen being probably the top of that list. It's just a significant issue. So I wanted to spend a little bit of time on that. We'll continue to work this issue legislatively with our state representatives and hopefully at some point in the future we can see something better. But it's a significant issue and again, almost four and a half cents on our tax rate is associated with this. All right, that's some background big picture revenue and a little bit on the state mandates, our proposed budget revenues and expenditures for the general fund $165 million to $98 million. You'll notice that those two numbers balance, which is somewhat unusual. It's certainly unusual in the world of federal government, which has never balanced or I shouldn't say never hasn't balanced the budget in decades. I don't think we must, as local governments must balance the budget. We cannot operate in deficits at the local level and this budget does balance.
Speaker 5:Here's a big picture pie chart that shows revenues for the general fund. I won't go through all of those. You'll see a green triangle pointed up and a red triangle pointed down. That just means that that money or that line, that dollar amount there. If it's a green triangle, that means that those dollars went up year to year. If it's a red, that means it went down a little bit. And you'll see a mix Some went up, some went down. At the end it's 165, 298, 540. As I mentioned earlier, property taxes and sales tax represent about 75, 80 percent or so of our budget in terms of revenue and you see the other revenue sources that are associated with the budget. This is our history for the general fund. It just looks at it a little bit different way visually, but you can see the bar graph in terms of revenues and again, property tax revenue because of growth and reappraisals and sales tax revenue because of growth in salesraisals and sales tax revenue because of growth in sales tax moves those bars upward Expenditures.
Speaker 5:The county is a service-based organization and what that means is our primary expense if we're a service-based organization is always going to be in personnel and staffing, because that's the majority of our cost, and so out of our $165 million budget, over $101 million of that goes towards staff and benefits and the things that you see listed there. Again, 60-40 is about how it shakes out. If you look at this graph, for example, on the school district, that personnel part of that would be even bigger because they have lots and lots of teachers and so they're very, very heavy on personnel and staff and service expenses in their budget. So it really is a function of what type of organization you have in terms of where those dollars go to. But for service-based organizations, I don't think I've ever seen one where staffing wasn't more than half of that budget and usually quite a bit more than that. Our expenditure history general fund uh, adopted, proposed again, looking at it just a little bit differently, but there you can see what the expenditures have been in terms of adopted and proposed, and and again, $165,298 is what we're proposing this year in terms of expenses In terms of those expenses. Here's where the vast majority of those new expenditures are. For the FY26 budget, as it has been presented anyway, we're proposing to add 11 new positions seven in the judiciary component of our budget, two public safety and then four other positions. That's a little over $1.1 million for adding those positions. Increase in public safety positions We'll be opening the expansion of the jail in this fiscal year. We budgeted some time ago to begin that process to fill new positions that are needed as a result of that expansion and this represents the cost for budgeting those positions at 75 percent. Beginning in roughly January or time frame.
Speaker 5:Stafford's salary change changes mandated by the state and we're going to have more discussion about that today. But there are some statutory salary changes that have been mandated by the state. Some of those changes are paid for by the state and some of those changes are not paid for by the state. So this back to unfunded mandates. I didn't highlight it but it was on that other chart that I showed you where there is a cost associated with a salary increase that the state is not paying for but mandates that the county pay for County-wide pay increase 2%.
Speaker 5:Cola is included within this preliminary budget Merit pay.
Speaker 5:The commissioner's court adopted a year or two ago maybe two years ago now a merit pay approach for employees so that department heads are allocated some funds so that they can, through an evaluation system, afford merit increases during the course of the year based on that evaluation system, and there's a cost associated with that because it's pay, it's compensation.
Speaker 5:We also do reclassifications through our budget process. Reclassification is not necessarily related to a person. It's related to the position, which means a job description or a job position has changed, and if it's changed, then the department head comes forward in the budget process and tells us this job was doing this, it is now doing this and it should be reclassified under our pay plan for another tier. These represent again $56,000 worth of reclassifications for those positions in the pay plan. Overtime, part-time-type pay actually decreased and then changes in benefits and rates also actually decreased this year. So all totaled a little over $4.4 million. In terms of personnel expenditures, non-personnel expenditures actually decreased. In this FY26 budget proposal, the single biggest one is the jail and food services and that's a process we go through. Do we go through that every year or every other year?
Speaker 3:What's the We've never been. We haven't been that out in several years.
Speaker 5:In several years. At any rate, we've got some substantial savings in that this year and that helped quite a bit in terms of our non-personnel expenditures. We'll go through the rest of those other than there are some things that are very, very, very difficult for us to manage, especially when it comes down to that other operating cost, which, if you total those up, it's about $1.6 million or so there. But our software subscriptions and maintenance the tech services director knows every year I complain about it when Microsoft says oh, by the way, we're going to increase your subscriptions to all these platforms that you use by X percent and that X percent is way more than our revenue cap that the state has imposed. And unless we go back to big two tablets and number two pencils, we don't really have a choice. We have to pay it. Utilities another thing we have to keep the lights on when we add facilities, we've got additional costs for those. But when the utilities increase their costs, just like for a homeowner, there are very little options available there for us, especially when we're adding square footage across the county. Those are some costs that go up that we really have very, very little control. We try to manage them the best we can. We're part of a pool for our electrical costs. Statewide. That pool goes out and purchases electricity at a discount and that's a good thing and we'll continue to do that and that's all good, but again, those costs still continue to increase. Our fund balance also very important Again, we must maintain for our policies a minimum of three months. We'll see there. For the past five, five years we've been as high as almost six months in reserve. That's unassigned, and this budget we're proposing a fund balance of about 4.2 months in unassigned fund. Again, all of those numbers above what is minimally required under our policies, and I would say we continue to have a very healthy fund balance.
Speaker 5:This is another way looking at our revenues, uh, where they come from, I won't spend much time on that, but it just allocates those by percentages. Our expenditures, um, I've often said, if, if you look at that pie graph and you look at where most of your county tax dollar goes, most of it, the majority of your county tax dollar goes to public safety and it always has. Um, I I've not looked at a county budget going back decades that that was not the case. Public safety is always the number one priority for the county and so, uh, sheriff's department, the jail, um the deputies, the judiciary, the district attorney's office, um the clerk's offices that handle the paperwork associated with those dockets in those judges' courtrooms and that are in the hands of the prosecutors and the defense attorneys. All of that relates to public safety, and that's at least 60 to 70 percent, in my view, of your county tax dollar is where it goes. I also consider a lot of that almost non-discretionary in some regards. We have to operate the jail. We have to operate that Now. We try to do so and the sheriff tries to do so as efficiently as possible so that we're providing that service that we're required to do but at the same time being mindful of the dollars that we're spending at the jail. But public safety is a priority in this budget, just as it has been in every budget, all funds. All I've talked about so far is our general fund, but we have other funds and I won't go through all of those today, but when you go through all of those all totaled we're about $233 million plus in terms of our total budget. I tell people all the time that your county government is a multi-million dollar corporation and again, it has been for a long time, but that just illustrates that. So that's your all funds and you can see the other funds here listed there. And again, it has been for a long time, but that just illustrates that. So that's your all funds and you can see the other funds listed there.
Speaker 5:All right, the money slide, so to speak. This is the proposed tax rate for FY26. You see the current tax rate on the first line, the proposed tax tax rate and then the change, and you'll note that what is being proposed in this preliminary budget for fy 26 is a decrease, a decrease in the proposed property tax rate, and the proposed rate is the no new revenue rate. I'll show you another slide here about years. We have done that and we have done it more than one year. Our current rate, total rate including the road and bridge tax, is $34.45. The proposed rate would drop that by a little more than a penny to get to the no new revenue rate, which is at $33.27. There's your property tax rates for the past decade or so and you'll see that since 2016 to today, except for one year, that rate has been maintained or declined every year, and again, I think that's attributable to lots of things. The growth in the county has helped us do that. The way your elected officials and department heads manage the dollars that we appropriate in this budget has helped that to occur also. But again, the Bell County tax rate is $31.28 plus the 199 and 33.27. So tax rate impact on an average home value the 2025 rate was 34.45 per $100 valuation. The 26 proposed rate is 33.27.
Speaker 5:There are two assumptions that are important in the calculation that follows, and those assumptions are that the average taxable home value of 286,887. That's our average across the county, the appraised value from 2025, is unchanged. So that assumption is that your property value has not increased. There's been no re-appraisal on it that has gone upwards on it. If those two things are true, then your average county, your tax bill for the county portion of your taxes, will decline by $33.86. It will be that much less, or $2.82 a month. And again, those two assumptions are important because not everybody's home remains the same and we understand that.
Speaker 5:Uh, one of the things we also like to do is, uh, do comparisons in terms of tax rates. Um, we don't always have all when we do this presentation. We don't always have the most current proposed tax rate for the other entities in the county uh. So those are the footnotes that are on there. Current rate or proposed rate maybe not yet adopted but you'll see on the Bell County tax rate 3327, that's almost half of what the four largest cities' tax rates are across the county.
Speaker 5:For school districts, as you all know, that's the majority of your property tax bill is associated with school districts and there are the tax, the current rates that we are aware of. Um, I guess temple isd has already adopted or proposed maybe not adopted but proposed a rate for uh the next fiscal year. But you see, all of uh, temple isd is over a dollar for 100, belton isd is over $1 and Colleen is just under it at $0.87 per $100. And in the bottom right is the percent of your tax bill for Bell County, depending upon which school district your property is located in. So if you are in Temple ISD school district, then the county percentage of your tax bill is 14%, which means 86% of your tax bill is associated with somebody else and not Bell County. If you live in Belton ISD and in the county, then it's up to 2% is the county bill, but still 78% of your tax bill is associated with some other entity. In addition to looking at our tax rates locally and within the county. We also survey and look outside and we look at about I don't know a dozen, 15, maybe 16 counties or so outside that surround Bell County and look at those tax rates. I won't go around the whole region there, but I think you'll see that our tax rate is extremely good when compared to other counties that are around us. All right FY26 projects Again.
Speaker 5:I won't spend a lot of time on this slide either, but again, public safety, just as it does within our operating budgets, also dominates our project list in terms of what we're doing. The expansion of our general population at the jail is a huge, huge undertaking by the county, the largest single capital improvement project in the history of the county, and in addition to that we're adding a mental health unit there, which we think is sorely needed. The largest mental health care facility in the county is your county jail, and your county jail was never designed to be a mental health facility, but that's what it has become and that's what it is. So we must recognize that reality and treat those individuals with the best care that we can while they're in our custody. With the closing of the radio system expansion, various other jail projects and some juvenile detention center projects again all of those things public safety related.
Speaker 5:There's about $5 million for facilities, major work to do at facilities. We have 28 or 30 different facilities across the county. They are in a constant state of maintenance. Some maintenance is relatively small and some maintenance is not, and so again, significant dollars allocated there. So again, significant dollars allocated there. And then facilities. The last thing I would highlight on this slide is facilities the Clean Annex we broke ground on that just a month or two ago, I think, and that project is underway. The Temple Annex I would anticipate some activity or some action associated with that in this next fiscal year or so.
Speaker 5:That's my next to last slide, and I only put this slide up here because the state makes us do it, because I think it's a very confusing thing to do. The only thing I'm going to read off of that slide is the last bullet, which the state doesn't mandate, and I put it on there, which is the proposed tax rate is about one penny lower than the FY25 tax rate. That, to me, is the money point on that slide. The rest of that, in my mind, adds more confusion than it does clarity, but the state requires us to put that on the front page of our budget, so we do it. We have three public hearings.
Speaker 5:I've already mentioned that the court accepted or adopted those dates at the previous item on the agenda. Today, wednesday August 20th, at 6 pm, there will be a tax rate public hearing in this room and then on Monday, august 25th, we'll adopt or consider adopting our budget as well as hold a public hearing for that, and we'll hold a public hearing on the tax rate again and we'll also set the tax rate on August 25th. So adoption of the budget, setting the tax rate, all set for August 25th, and I think that's my last slide. Commissioners, any questions? Comments? This was again presentation. Presentation. No action required on this item, but we typically do a presentation in concert with setting those presentation dates. All right, and that presentation if we haven't already I don't know that we posted before it's given in here, but we'll post that on our Web page so anyone, everybody, can have access to that.
Speaker 1:Thank you, judge Blackburn, for that Presentation. Now the citizens are a little bit smarter on county government and what we're doing, and so it's still your opportunity to get involved, ask questions, get things changed around. We're staying at the no new revenue rate, which also equals no new growth, and ask me about that and I'll go into detail about that. That and I'll go into detail about that. One quick thing before I forget we have to educate ourselves on issues that the public are asking for change on, and I'm referencing the animal shelter. So I am no expert in animal shelter operations, anything about animals. I mean, I own dogs and cats, but nothing on a grand scale like this.
Speaker 1:So when it was brought to me, I've had many, many people say that you need to visit Williamson County. Williamson County is getting things right. So I set up a meeting with the director down there, misty, williamson County Regional Animal Shelter and I was blown away. I was blown away. I went there on the 13th August, the 13th in the morning, with a couple of people from Bell County and it was amazing what they're doing over there. And yeah, I get it, it's a larger county. But she said Misty, the director said that she's helping Lampasas County because they asked for help and just the things that they're doing with outreach years trying to get the dog the treatment it needs to make it safe to go to a loving family, to the dog's forever home, and that would never happen in bell county, never happen in Bell County, never happen.
Speaker 1:So you know it goes with funding. You got to fund it and, like I said, williamson County is definitely a much larger county and they have a little bit more resources. But they had 50 employees down there. Their operating budget is $4 million a year. Employees down there, their operating budget is $4 million a year and they have a very nice, very large facility and they are an intake facility. So they're getting things right. You know we probably won't spend $4 million a year on an animal shelter operations, on an animal shelter operations, but we can do better and there are things that we can do to improve the lives of those animals. So let's keep working. You know this is a long game. So we know what the goal is right and we just work every day towards that goal. Lesson in life Remember squeaky wheel gets the oil. Learn that in the Army. So thank you everyone for listening and we will talk to you next week. Outro Music.
