By Richard O. Avery, Ph.D., County Relations Officer, Texas Association of Counties County Focus Series Years ago, County Progress published a special series of articles to help acclimate new officials to Commissioners Court: County Focus. This set of descriptive writings authored by experts in the field covers the varied offices and departments that make … [Read more...] about County Focus: Tax Assessors
taxes
General Counsel’s Report: The Dilemma of the Dwindling Tax Base
Counties have been granted limited revenue sources by the Texas Legislature. The primary source of county funding is the property tax. Unfortunately, this source faces serious issues and challenges. All taxes are unpopular. The property tax is more unpopular than most others, such as the sales tax, because 1) every taxpayer is informed of the total property taxes paid … [Read more...] about General Counsel’s Report: The Dilemma of the Dwindling Tax Base
Emergency Services District: A Bona Fide Bargain
By Cliff Avery SAFE-D Executive Director On every uniform election date it seems that local voters somewhere in Texas are creating emergency services districts (ESDs). Most are created to provide reliable funding for fire protection or emergency medical response. The fire departments – sometimes volunteer, sometimes municipal career – and emergency medical services … [Read more...] about Emergency Services District: A Bona Fide Bargain
From the President
At this writing, the 79th Legislature is still in session. I was thinking there for a while that I might have some very good news for you county leaders. I was hoping that the finance caps bill would fail, but instead it was suddenly tucked underneath the skirt of the school finance bill. I cannot for the life of me try to guess at this time what the outcome will be of this and … [Read more...] about From the President