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Self gives budget perspective to commissioners
By Marthe Stinton, mstinton@acnpapers.com
The economic environment of the county may seem a little foggy now, but this week at the Collin County Commissioner’s Court, County Judge Keith Self suggested improvements for the upcoming budget discussion.
Revenue is also up 73 percent and expenditures are up 97 percent. Debt has increased drastically by 170 percent and debt service has risen 132 percent.
“The debt looks alarming but that is a result of four bond elections which were overwhelmingly approved by the voters, which the voters knew what they were voting on,” said Joe Jaynes, county commissioner. “Since we have had those bond elections we have had three tax rate decreases and a homestead exemption. I think since 2007 homeowners are paying $32 less in county taxes. I don’t want anyone to get the idea that the commissioners court is just up here increasing debt.”
“We are now up to 7.9 percent, which is actual data for us so it’s 33,000 citizens,” Self said.
Gross county increases from 1999-2009 include a jump in population of 63 percent. With this increase in population comes the jump in tax abatement dollars, or TIFs, for the county. According to Self, the county has a total of more than $1 billion of the county’s taxes abated, “in one way or another,” Self said.
“I think we need to readjust our TIF policy to where it’s based on a regional project only,” Jaynes said. “All of our TIF money that we put toward projects such as that goes to infrastructure which are core functions of the county. I can remember back to 2000 when the intersection of SH121 and FM289, State Farm Insurance designated it as the worst intersection in the state. We would never have been able to address that as quickly as we had with TIF. But I do think we need tweaking on that policy.”
The study found that the TIF or tax abatements for the 2000 fiscal year were $74,000 while this year they were $4 million. Early projections show the TIFs equaling $5.7 million, but the amount is still uncertain.
According to a study by the Texas County and District Retirement System, 42 percent of the county’s employees would make more than $100,000 a year in retirement. Self said TCDRS conducts actuarial studies that include promotions, pay raises and makes the assumption of retiring at 60 years old.
Self said there would be 524 employees that would make more in retirement than their final salary just prior to their retirement rate.
“That’s a 250 percent match and if we moved down to 200 percent we would still have more than 400 that would make more,” Self said.
Jaynes debated the facts regarding the retirement numbers.
“I think what you are looking at is someone working with the county for 40 years getting a 2.5 percent increase every year compounded annually, and quite frankly that doesn’t happen here,” Jaynes said. “I don’t know of any employees that have worked here 40 years and I don’t think we have ever given 2.5 percent annually every year. All of our job positions have a ceiling - they get to a point that they top out and you have an average truck driver making $180,000 a year at the end of their 40 years here. I think those numbers are really inflated there and I would like to have the staff take a look at these numbers.”
Self said the numbers shown were not his own.
“TCDRS does an extremely detailed actuarial study for promotions and pay increases,” Self said.
Self recommended that the substance abuse program currently run by the county be closed.
“The substance abuse program is a noble goal to work on the drug problem in our county but we don’t treat a single person and I think our county money should go to treatment,” Self said. “I believe it would be more beneficial for our citizens.”
Self also suggested that given the current economic condition in Collin County, the staff should consider skipping its pay raise as well as allocating two clerks per court to district courts. He also recommended reducing the TCDRS match from 250 percent to 150 percent, changing the retirement system for employees to a 457, which is similar to a 401K. Other recommendations include matching the private sector insurance cost coverage for both employees and retirees, and pursuing a Medigap insurance policy.
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