The Bandera County Commissioners Court voted unanimously during their September 12 meeting to approve amendments to the proposed 2024-25 budget, resulting in a $73,500 reduction as presented by County Auditor Darryl Sadler.
Sadler explained that the savings largely stem from the Appraisal District, where an expected increase in funding was revised to reflect a decrease.
“We budgeted for an increase, but it looks like it’ll be a decrease,” Sadler said.
He further noted that the Appraisal District might adjust the figures slightly in November based on final collections but recommended the addition of $5,000 to the amended budget as a precaution.
“It would still be a savings of about $45,000,” Sadler added.
During the discussion, Judge Richard Evans questioned the accuracy of the Appraisal District’s initial figures, which were later revised.
“They gave us 400-something thousand dollars for errors in their calculations,” Evans said.
Sadler explained that the discrepancy was due to a missing line of anticipated tax collections.
“After we started looking at it, I emailed them and realized they were missing about seven million dollars of anticipated tax collections,” Sadler said.
The correction raised the county’s allotment to between $400,000 and $545,000.
The commissioners also reviewed the balance of the amendments before Evans opened the floor for public comment.
With no comments from the public, the court voted in favor of adopting the proposed amendments, which will reduce expenditures by $68,000 and lower the tax rate by four cents.
“We’ve reduced the tax rate by 23% over the last three years,” Evans noted.
However, the final vote to adopt the overall 2024-25 budget and tax rate is scheduled for the regular Commissioners Court meeting on September 26.
According to the county agenda, a public hearing and adoption of the tax rate will take place on that date. The adopted budget will be available on the county’s website following the vote.
