Fauth budget addresses salaries, no tax rate increase
Sworn in Dec. 18, 2017, County Judge Joe Fauth has several budgets under his belt but creating a balanced budget that’s fair to taxpayers and county employees can be challenging. Highlights of Fauth’s proposed 2021-2022 budget include no increase in the tax rate, increasing the hourly wage of specific law enforcement positions, a cost of living adjustment for county employees and hiring three new employees.
Tax rate, salaries
Fauth’s proposed balanced budget of $38,501,621.61 is based on no change to the current tax rate of $0.526933 per $100 valuation.
Fauth proposes a $3 per hour increase for jailers, dispatchers and new deputies in the Grimes County Sheriff’s Office and a 5% cost of living adjustment for all employees and elected officials.
Addressing the ‘defunding law enforcement’ wave which has swept urban areas, Fauth said, “I’m trying to rectify some of the salary shortcomings in our law enforcement.”
Staffing needs, vehicles
Addressing personnel, Fauth’s budget proposal to add an additional Investigator to the District Attorney’s office is prompted by the availability of three new dedicated courtrooms.
Fauth said the Grimes County Justice and Business Center with its additional 32,000 square feet to be maintained warrants one additional janitor in Facilities Maintenance. A second new hire proposed for Facilities Maintenance is a clerical person to monitor maintenance requests in light of additional responsibilities the County will assume for the CHI St. Joseph Health Grimes Hospital in Navasota Oct. 1.
Fauth has also allocated funding for new patrol cars and an Investigator’s vehicle.
Capital projects, unfinished business
According to Fauth, $650,000 is left from the $12 million Justice Center pool to go toward remodeling the Annex. Moving Adult Probation from Navasota to the Annex will save Grimes County $30,000 per year in rental fees.
Another project remaining is construction of the Maintenance/Storage building behind the Justice and Business Center. Initially, a smaller building was designed for Maintenance but elected officials voiced concerns about records storage and access, resulting in a larger building with a larger price tag.
Some commissioners favored reducing the building size and cost by storing records off-site, as far away as Austin. Fauth disagrees saying, “I have absolutely no doubt that it is the right decision to tie that into a records storage building that’s convenient to our employees who use those records and reference those records.”
Concerned about the inability to provide the public with records in a timely manner if stored off-site, Fauth said, “By the time you need the record, call for the record, retrieve the record, you are effectively looking at 3-7 days, and then there are the charges associated with that.”
Misconceptions
Commissioners Court as a body has the final say when it comes to approval of the budget, but there are still misconceptions when it comes to authority.
Fauth said, “One of the misconceptions that citizens have about the county judge is that ‘You get to tell everybody and anybody what to do because they all report to you.’
He continued, “That’s not true. The county judge is only responsible for his department and those that he liaisons to Commissioners Court, but every elected official has as much authority over their department as I have over mine. They have as little authority over my department as I have over theirs.”
Fauth continued, “The only authority I and Commissioners Court have when we go through this budget process is, as County Attorney Jon C. Fultz has told us, ‘You’re only required to give an elected official enough to operate their office and take care of their constitutional duties and requirements.’”