KERR COUNTY, Texas – Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly wants the county to dip into its savings to avoid raising its tax rate in the wake of deadly and devastating flooding.
The July 4 floods killed 108 people — 71 adults and 37 children — in Kerr County. Now, recovery costs and the loss of tax revenue from destroyed riverside properties are straining the county government’s budget plans.
“This is potentially an existential dilemma for the county and whether or not we’re gonna be able to provide county services, public services,” Kelly said at the Kerr County Commissioners Court on Monday.
“And I just throw that out because we’ll do this again next year and see where we are. I feel fairly comfortable we can get from here to there. I don’t know about from there (to) anywhere else."
The proposed tax rate in Kelly’s budget proposal, which he submitted on Friday, would remain at 42.33 cents per $100 of property value. To keep it there, Kelly has proposed using about $11.2 million from an assortment of county fund balances, which he referred to as the “rainy day fund.”
Kelly said that works out to the equivalent of 17 cents on the tax rate and warned the county will not have the same revenue sources or fund balance to handle similar expenses next year.
The county judge refused to speak with KSAT about the details of his budget proposal, but he said during Monday’s meeting that “a lot” of the $11 million had to do with disaster damages from the July 4 flood.
Approximately $5.5 million is for disaster damages, he said, though the budget also appeared to show $4.1 million of that coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
He also mentioned a $500,000 contingency for autopsies and a recovery warehouse at the airport.
But when the Guadalupe River rose, it also destroyed numerous properties whose owners are now looking for tax relief.
“It’s going to reduce the market value that they’re going to have to pay taxes on because of those exemptions,” Kelly said. “And we’ve got uncollectible property taxes of approximately $2 million in this budget.”
Precinct 2 Commissioner Rich Paces suggested the county could actually cut the rate even further — to 40.24 cents per $100 of valuation “at a minimum.”
“I think a reserve balance is for just a time such as this and then if we eat into it a little bit more we’ll deal with it next year on what we have to do. If we have to raise the tax rate next year, so be it. But I don’t think we have to,” Paces said.
County commissioners will hold a workshop on Wednesday afternoon to further discuss the budget and tax rate, with a vote scheduled for Aug. 25.
Cade Loop Bridge repairs
The estimated amount needed to repair the Cade Loop Bridge, located off Highway 39 in Ingram, has climbed hundreds of thousands of dollars due to engineering costs.
The bridge was severely damaged after flooding, and the county closed the bridge. Kerr County officials estimate that repairs will now cost more than $1.4 million.
“It’s an undertaking, but it’s a lot better pill to swallow than what we first thought,” Commissioner Don Harris said. “We were thinking it was going to be like $6 million.”
Kelly said that the county will be responsible for covering 25% of repairs, while FEMA will cover the remaining 75%.
In the meantime, Commissioner Tom Jones indicated that the county has a plan for a temporary bridge with the assistance of FEMA.
“There’s also going to be an additional project that we’ve already got before FEMA for the $500,000 for the temporary bridge while this bridge is being worked on, and we’ll hear back from them sometime pretty quickly,” Jones said.
The commissioners decided to move forward with the repairs and the next steps for the temporary bridge.
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