2011 County Budget

(This was originally posted on Commissioner Jaynes’ blog on Sept. 16, 2010 but bears repeating)

Dear Friends,

This week the Collin County Commissioners Court passed a solid budget.  However, my concern is that our approach to this budget was both politically divisive and short-sighted.

Overall, Collin County went into this budget process with a scenario that every city and county in the nation would have envied.  We had over $128 million in reserves and had employee input on how to trim approximately $8 million from the budget.

The budget came in at $271.9 million.  While $1.9 million over last year’s budget, we paid an additional $10 million to cover future retirement benefits and future medical benefits for retirees.

In other words, we cut the budget by approximately $8 million but added $10million from our reserves to significantly pay down future costs which have plagued places like California and Illinois.  This puts us light years ahead of other governmental entities in covering future liabilities.

Where does the short sightedness come in?  First, we lowered the tax rate one-quarter cent.  This saves every homeowner in Collin County around $5.50 a year in county property taxes.