[0:01] All right. Good afternoon. It is August 24, 2026, 6 o'clock p.m., an act of county commissioners quarters now in session. If you'll please rise for the invocation by Commissioner Samantha Russell, pledge allegiance by Commissioner Gregson.

[0:15] Thank you so much for meeting this evening, Lord, I pray that you watch over every citizen

[0:19] and actor county, Lord, and just make us to make sure that we make the best decisions

[0:24] for actor county and for all of our citizens.

[0:26] We pray these things in Jesus name, amen.

[0:28] Amen.

[0:29] Please join me in the play.

[0:57] As with all meetings of the Ektro County Commission's Court it is a public meeting and we invite

[1:01] the public to participate.

[1:02] If you wish to do so, we please ask you fill out a public participation form found at the front table.

[1:07] We ask you fill it out in its entirety and bring that forward to Jennifer Martin, who is our wonderful county clerk.

[1:13] And then she'll pass that along to me and record it into the minutes.

[1:16] You'll be afforded three minutes of time.

[1:19] Please adhere strictly to that time.

[1:20] We have some quite a few folks who would like to speak tonight.

[1:24] Also, audience members, we do have some commissioner court rules.

[1:27] We want to just discourage any loud cheering or anything of the sort.

[1:32] We allow it to some extent, but this is not your kid's T-Bull Game.

[1:36] This is a court hearing, so please respect that.

[1:40] All right, we do have number one is to receive public comments on non-agenda related items.

[1:45] We do have five folks who wish to speak.

[1:48] And so we will call for Mr. Jeff Russell.

[1:56] Good evening, Judge Fawcett, commissioners.

[1:59] I wanted to bring two things to the members of the place.

[2:02] Is that better?

[2:03] Yes.

[2:03] Okay.

[2:04] Okay, I wanted to bring two things before the court to not to make sure you guys were aware of what was going on.

[2:12] I followed a public information request on April the 29th, where I requested communications and meeting records involving Judge Palsett, his office, Zachary Zal, new air energy and digital and Texas critical data centers and the related entities.

[2:29] And instead of producing the records, extra county went to the Texas Attorney General and argued that the project communications should be withheld under the economic development exception in Section 552.131 of the Public Information Act.

[2:44] The county specifically argued that disclosure would harm ongoing negotiations involving this project.

[2:49] The attorney general has since ruled in that case and has ordered the county to turn over those responsive information to me.

[2:59] Since twice requested those documents to be turned over to me, I have twice not seen them.

[3:06] So it's very important that the county adhere to Texas law that attorney general has ruled those documents should be delivered and we need to get into why they have not yet been produced.

[3:19] Those have been produced?

[3:20] Yes, and we got the Attorney General letter about I think two weeks after Mr. Russell.

[3:25] We were actually trying to find it, we did get it, and those documents have been released.

[3:29] Mr. Russell, if you don't have them, please let us know.

[3:31] Okay, yeah, I haven't received them as of this afternoon.

[3:33] I don't know when they've been sent out, but thank you for that.

[3:35] Well, but we'll make sure we get them.

[3:37] Okay, thank you.

[3:38] The second thing is I'd like to talk about the new County Cemetery.

[3:44] There was comment made during the budget hearings by Commissioner Simmons that kind of alluded to the fact whether he wondered

[3:55] allowed whether the county moving forward with the new cemetery was even legal under Texas law.

[4:05] I did some digging into it and sent over to Miss Prentice my research, but it looks very much like the county may be in violation of Texas law and building a new cemetery, unless it's for the express and complete and only purpose of interning poppers, which the county is legally required to take care of.

[4:34] But I would really, really encourage the court to, until we get a written ruling out of our county attorney.

[4:44] More importantly, I think maybe a written ruling out of the Texas Attorney General's office to put a halt on that project, until it is determined that that project can legally move forward.

[4:56] Thank you.

[4:57] Thank you.

[4:58] Next we have Joanna Kees.

[5:12] Thank you.

[5:13] So I don't have a statement, I have some bullet points, so I went back and did my homework as far as what the county can and can't control for data centers and I broke it down into two to what the city has power to do and what the county has power to do so that way I can hit the right points.

[5:31] We've talked about tax abatements and negotiated agreements, and how counties can leverage economic incentives.

[5:38] Chapter three, 12 tax abatements.

[5:40] Counties can contractually buying developers to specific local standards regarding noise mitigation,

[5:46] vegetative screening, water recycling, and road repair.

[5:51] Temporary moratoriums, we've heard that didn't work in Hill County because those face strict legal scrutiny

[5:59] and are meant to by time, rather than the service of permit ban, but I think we're all fine with like a temporary moratorium just so we can

[6:05] figure out how this is actually going to work.

[6:09] Rodent infrastructure regulation, county, counties maintain explicit authority over county road usage,

[6:15] overweight vehicle permits, and subdivision infrastructure.

[6:18] Commissioners can enforce strict bonding, weight limits, and repair mandates for heavy construction traffic.

[6:25] On site permitting, counties have direct regulatory oversight regarding on-site sewage facilities,

[6:30] septic systems, and floodplain management, which would be an interesting question.

[6:35] I think here as far as flooding.

[6:38] Commissioners can leverage new state level audit pauses from the governor's office.

[6:44] Coordinate with the Texas Association of Counties and

[6:47] implement permitted local checklists for public safety, noise and infrastructure.

[6:52] Permining and development checklist, adopt objective local safety, road use, traffic and noise mitigation checklist that falls safely under existing statutory county road and public health authorities rather than ban county zoning joint county coalitions.

[7:10] That's a thing, I am sort of learning about it now, counties can engage with the Texas Association of counties to participate in ongoing legislative roundtables and

[7:20] to coordinate joint pushes for statutory, local, authority for unincorporated areas ahead of the next legislative session.

[7:29] And then I have a little bit of information just to blur about revenue impact.

[7:34] The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts estimates tax exemption for

[7:39] data centers have cost, have surged past 3.3 billion, that's a lot of money, we're throwing away.

[7:47] Okay, that was the only points I had, I'm happy to send my research if anybody is interested.

[7:53] Thank you.

[7:54] Thank you.

[7:58] All right, next up we have Justin Malcolm.

[8:10] Good evening, I came here after work because I specifically was told that this is a more

[8:15] direct avenue to talk about data centers and their harms on the environment and the working

[8:21] population here.

[8:23] I have the privilege of doing deliveries in service of the oil field and I get to meet a lot

[8:28] a lot of faces, a lot of people who love their families, love their work, work really hard.

[8:34] And as someone who has raised the Christian, I believe that these data centers that support these new AI companies

[8:41] are costing families and will raise prices on energy, on water, especially in this town,

[8:48] where even West Odessa, water is a dire need.

[8:53] and data

[8:58] centers cost two to three million gallons of water.

[9:03] They use two to three millions of gallons of water almost every day.

[9:07] And AI itself has, AI itself

[9:17] is, if you're a parent, you have a son,

[9:21] you have a daughter, AI, you know, they use this phone every day

[9:24] And they are able to access this app that can access the internet and can tell them things that, you know, as parents are concerning for us.

[9:35] And as, you know, a town, as a city, as a community, it's deeply concerning to me and it should be deeply concerning to everyone in this room who is really profiting off of these AI data centers.

[9:48] And data centers will do nothing for this community, the things that this community needs.

[9:53] Especially in times of extreme cold and extreme heat with our electricity sometimes going out.

[10:00] Intermittent blackouts, like cross town, even if it's just a small house, it's deeply concerning.

[10:07] And that's why if you're just someone who's in this town, someone who's working, if you're in this town and you're someone who's working,

[10:16] this should be deeply concerning for all of us.

[10:20] Thank you.

[10:23] Next, we have Jesse Poros.

[10:35] Good evening.

[10:37] I'm here to acknowledge to let everyone know.

[10:40] My name is Jesse Poros.

[10:41] I'm running for County Commissioner Precinct 4.

[10:44] I'm running because I believe the community serves someone who is willing to listen to the people work hard.

[10:51] And also I am a public servant community organizer.

[10:53] I also am military veteran.

[10:56] At the time, I want to let people know that I'm here to hear the concerns to do the best I can to acknowledge any of the problems that need to be resolved.

[11:07] I mean, there are going to be some problems that I can't give them an answer but I will do my best to find the answer or find a person that can give me the answer to acknowledge, to let the people know what's going on.

[11:19] Other than that, I am running for precinct four and I'm here to let the people know.

[11:24] Thank you.

[11:28] Thank you, Ms. Forrest.

[11:29] Next, we have Francisco Morales.

[11:48] Hello.

[11:48] My name is Francisco Morales, and I'm here to tell the people who don't know that they want

[11:53] to build AI data centers here in Nectar County.

[11:55] Our elected officials have been meeting privately with these tech billionaires.

[11:59] They want to give them tax rates and they claim the data centers are going to build jobs, but

[12:04] they're not.

[12:05] They make a small amount of jobs, and apart from that, AI is helping take away jobs.

[12:09] AI has taken thousands of jobs, so do we really want to help them take more?

[12:13] The data centers also release a ton of emissions, which are harmful to breathe in.

[12:18] They are planning on making gas plants to create their own electricity, but at the cost of giving away our air.

[12:24] Pickles is already getting a massive data center.

[12:26] They are going to release more emissions than entire fucking countries.

[12:30] Like this is fucking crazy, guys.

[12:32] What the hell?

[12:34] And then-

[12:34] No, hey, that's-

[12:36] Don't interrupt me, please.

[12:37] Don't interrupt.

[12:38] I will interrupt you.

[12:39] No, you will not.

[12:39] This is my time.

[12:41] No, it's in my time sir. I'm sorry you violated the rule of your time. Any more

[12:45] Francis go all that air is going to

[12:47] Go where we want to add more pollution to our air Francis go. We're going to have to ask you to remove

[12:55] Yeah, I haven't finished talking and I still have more time. No, you pause my time. I want to take my time

[13:00] I called a first amendment right and you should know about that

[13:06] You can be held in intensive court and be fine.

[13:10] We really don't want to do that.

[13:12] Please step away.

[13:13] You'll be held in.

[13:14] Can you finish my comment?

[13:15] No.

[13:15] I'm not going to let you finish.

[13:16] You violated those rules.

[13:17] Please, please leave it.

[13:20] You're public serving.

[13:21] What the hell is fine, Cisco?

[13:22] Francisco.

[13:23] Talk to me.

[13:24] Step out here.

[13:25] We'll go ahead and talk.

[13:26] I'm not done talking.

[13:27] You're done.

[13:28] No, I'm not.

[13:29] You're done.

[13:29] I have my time.

[13:31] I want my time back.

[13:32] Sir, you're Francisco.

[13:35] Please grab your hand.

[13:35] I'm in the right. What's the Constitution? The Constitution? Let's go. It's done. Okay, Francisco. This is bullshit. No, sir

[13:44] It's not come on. I'm not gonna talk to me. Come on. Why would I talk to you? Are you voting on tax breaks? No, sir

[13:50] Are you not? But you're in here. You're disrupting a meeting. It's a violation. It's a Texas. It is not there's nothing

[13:56] It's my public comment. It's my time. That is not disruption. I'm sorry, sir. I'm sorry. You believe that

[14:05] Mr. Francisco, please.

[14:07] I'll collect my shit.

[14:08] I don't have to look at your

[14:09] shirts or sneakers.

[14:11] I'm not.

[14:11] You're doing your client my

[14:12] paper that is mine.

[14:15] Thank you.

[14:18] All right.

[14:19] Next we have Donald Rutledge.

[14:32] Good evening.

[14:33] It's not worth buying me a

[14:35] partial guy, I get straight

[14:36] nature.

[14:38] I like to.

[14:39] I just need a microphone.

[14:40] I have to.

[14:40] Thank you.

[14:42] We're good.

[14:42] Good.

[14:43] All right.

[14:46] All right.

[14:47] As precinct one commissioner done for West Odessa, I've made numerous phone calls,

[14:54] left messages, been up here numerous times, no response.

[15:00] Our roads are destroyed. Congratulations on getting trip after the redone. You don't even see the 10th of the traffic that knocks us. That road is destroyed. It's carrying people's vehicles up. It's not designed for semi-santrax, anything we were loaded to the guild drill pot. I'm tired of sand trucks going down my alley. And up in front of my house.

[15:29] This is supposed to be a residential area, but it's not handled that way.

[15:35] Reached I spent the last five years in Nigeria, which is considered a third world country.

[15:42] Westo Desert's Raperty becoming that third world country.

[15:47] You have people, vagrants everywhere, little pop-up stores everywhere you look.

[15:56] I don't understand how we let this go.

[16:00] Recently, probably about a year and a half ago, my next door neighbor had some fishers.

[16:07] Boyfriend came over angry.

[16:09] He was strangling the girl.

[16:12] They called me to help.

[16:14] Of course.

[16:15] I'm a gun with me.

[16:17] Equit.

[16:18] We call the shares.

[16:20] I want to have later they finally show up.

[16:24] We have no law enforcement.

[16:25] We have too many of the 18-wheelers drivers do not belong on the road at all.

[16:34] Just coming to this meeting on Knox, I've let some quarter mile from the interstate, had

[16:43] to wait on seven sand trucks just so I get on the service room.

[16:49] this is just good ridiculous probably close to 20 years ago I got a letter along

[16:57] with the rest is my area from the county if you give us $2,500 right now

[17:04] when we install water lines you don't have to pay for the hookup but you

[17:11] have to plug your water well you don't want to plug my water well we still have

[17:18] I have water at there either.

[17:19] That's 20 years later.

[17:22] They talk about how water's precious, yeah it is.

[17:28] The main thing is I'd like to see some action.

[17:31] More than anything else.

[17:34] Thank you very much.

[17:35] Mr. Rutledge, just for a clarifying statement,

[17:38] that letter did not come from the county,

[17:40] that either came from me or the water supply company

[17:43] that was looking at getting started out there.

[17:44] We've heard similar statements with that $2,500 is not.

[17:47] I misspoke, yeah.

[17:48] And I will say then I look forward to hearing yours

[17:50] And those folks who said amen to more law enforcement to supporting our budget.

[17:54] We've put more money in law enforcement and more money in roads.

[17:57] We've put $8 million in road construction, $4 million in road maintenance, and

[18:00] $2 million in funding additional road studies to expand roads like Moss have a new like trip and like Knox.

[18:08] Moss did a great on trip, nobody goes down.

[18:10] And we should have some water coming down.

[18:12] We don't want it.

[18:13] Towards Knox.

[18:14] We don't want it.

[18:15] Okay.

[18:15] Because when extra counties, you feel these just came in, took over, everybody's water right doubled, not worth it.

[18:26] Thank you for coming.

[18:28] All right, that concludes our public participation format.

[18:32] We will move on to item number two, public hearing.

[18:35] To consider discussing any serious action to conduct a public hearing on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2026-2027.

[18:43] We do have two members of the public who wish to participate.

[18:46] Mr. Jeff Russell.

[18:52] I must be your favorite judge, I get to go first every time.

[18:57] You know, as we look at the budget, I think when we start as average citizens and we start

[19:02] looking at these numbers and we see hundreds of millions of dollars, I think a lot of times

[19:07] we have a hard time relating to that in our day-to-day lives.

[19:11] Those are numbers we don't typically deal with.

[19:14] But I want to give you a number tonight that I think bears some scrutiny.

[19:19] That number is 95,795, so roughly $96,000, that's what the county, when you take all the

[19:27] funded positions, and you look at their salaries and all the benefits that go with it, that's

[19:33] the average amount that county employees get for a funded position, so $96,000.

[19:39] dollars. Of that, 44% of that comes in the form of benefits. So retirement alone is

[19:48] about $10.5 million a year. Healthcare insurance is another $9.1 million. And it isn't simply

[19:56] because the county has hired dramatically more people. I looked at a five year, I went back

[20:00] over and did a pretty deep dive on last five years budget. And over those five budget

[20:06] year's, funded positions increased about 10% but payroll has increased about 34% and total

[20:13] personnel costs increased nearly 29% or about $18 million additional. Payroll itself, just the

[20:21] payroll number, not the number, 34%. You know, as you look at that, so I said, okay, it was

[20:28] this comparison, so I looked at our school district. So the county's at 96, the school district

[20:33] is right at $20,000 per employee less in total FTE and in compensation, about 26% less than the county.

[20:46] When you look at health insurance, a lot of this has been driven by health insurance.

[20:50] When you look at that, then county employees contribute a very small amount to their own employee coverage and

[20:59] Our family coverage is really low at about $260 a month for a family coverage.

[21:04] To give you a comparison of that, my wife just recently moved from ECISD to MISD.

[21:10] And in order to get me on her insurance, we had to add about $1,200 a month just for me.

[21:18] No kids, just her spouse.

[21:20] $1,200 in the county that would cost me about $1,000 less if she were a county employee.

[21:24] way. So I think you can see how things have kind of gotten out of whack over time as we

[21:29] have moved to every budget cycle we've been giving increases and some of them quite large

[21:34] increases. We've really kind of gone above that level. I think County employees ought to be

[21:40] paid fairly absolutely. But I think it ought to bear some semblance to what's going on in

[21:46] the product sector. We hear this discussion a lot, private sector, brochures, public sector.

[21:50] By my best analysis, county employees at 96,000, they make more than about 65% of the tax payers that are helping to fund those positions.

[22:02] So I think if there's a place to-

[22:04] Thank you Ms. Russell.

[22:04] Yeah, I think if there's a place to cut, that might be one good place to look.

[22:10] Next we have Ms. Bobby.

[22:14] Bobby Duncan.

[22:17] He's Dana.

[22:18] I know she is.

[22:32] And I know how to use a microphone.

[22:37] First of all, let me tell you.

[22:39] Thank you for serving.

[22:43] You don't ever get thanks.

[22:44] So thanks.

[22:45] Now I'm here to crucify you.

[22:49] I

[22:52] have a retired teacher.

[22:55] I spent a hundred years in the classroom, really 43.

[23:00] at ECISD and I retired and would be today I get less take-home pay than I did 25 years ago.

[23:15] I first retired and that's because the State of Texas doesn't like us and I hope you like your

[23:22] employees better than they like us, because a 2% raise is 2% of nothing.

[23:33] It won't buy bag of groceries.

[23:36] It certainly is not going to pay the proposed tax increase that you're going to impose

[23:43] for the citizens of extra county or you hope to.

[23:49] It's going to affect everybody at every level.

[23:54] If they pay $200 a month for a one-room shack that rents going up and they won't be able to buy groceries.

[24:04] If they pay $10,000 a month, they might be able to afford a tax increase and still buy groceries.

[24:17] So please, 2% is a drop in the bucket of what people need to live.

[24:25] I don't know how many of you men go to the grocery store, but I know Miss Russell does.

[24:32] I walked out the other day with two bags of groceries that I thought I was lucky.

[24:36] I just paid $50.

[24:39] It's pretty hard out there, folks, and your employees deserve to raise.

[24:44] but there's a special group of employees and one of our previous commentator

[24:49] made comment about it. Our sheriff's department is understaffed, overworked,

[24:58] and underpaid. You compare their salaries to that of Midland and those in Martin County.

[25:07] We can't get people. They're going to go there.

[25:13] A 2% raise for somebody who risked

[25:17] His or her life is like giving one peanut to me for a treat.

[25:26] That's about what it is.

[25:30] So let's look at the budget again, please.

[25:34] Get that raise up for those people who risk their lives for us.

[25:40] For this county every single day, thank you.

[25:48] So some notable numbers on the budget, again, thank you, Ms. Duncan.

[25:52] In regards to this budget of the 60 general fund accounts, we have 60 different departments and

[25:58] different accounts.

[25:59] Some departments have multiple, like Ms. Martin over there in the county clerk, she has multiple.

[26:04] 19 of those 60 saw decreases this year from last year.

[26:08] Overall, we're cutting about $5 million out of the general fund and expenditures this year.

[26:12] Here, 19 of those 60 general fund accounts, or I mentioned saw decreases 30 or half of the accounts.

[26:19] So an increase under 3% as Miss Duncan mentioned, that's likely due to the 2% increase in salaries, just to keep folks working here in public service.

[26:30] And then 11 of those 60 against all over 3% and some of those were expanding the duties, expanding the offices, adding personnel where it was needed.

[26:40] Some of those notable functions are the county attorney getting a public information officer to handle the public information requests as Mr. Russell mentioned.

[26:50] We had over 300 of those public information requests come in over 45 days span and one person is handling all of those.

[26:57] Each one of those require legal documentation, redactions, correspondence with the attorney general's office, correspondence with the county attorney's office.

[27:05] And we continue to be flooded by those.

[27:08] We did see a reduction in staff in the JP 3 and 4 offices who have been underperforming.

[27:13] The tax assessor collector did receive two additional staff because we are seeing an additional 1100 new registered vehicles from out of state registers come to Ector County per year.

[27:27] That's 1100 new vehicles from folks out of the state who knows how many from inside of the state we do not know.

[27:32] But we figured that we would add two to Miss Lindy's office.

[27:37] And then another note, we did cut $1 million in the building maintenance fund.

[27:42] We are preparing for new facilities and we did not think it just to continue to spend at those high levels whenever we are building new facilities.

[27:50] And that was part of the reason and that compact that we had with the citizens in building new facilities.

[27:55] So those are some important things.

[27:57] Again, our general fund expends this year is $80 million, $867,120.

[28:03] We will see a $1.8 million surplus, or add the LORM levy in the general fund is $67,268,777.

[28:13] A decrease of $1.4 million from $68,754,339.

[28:19] I'll go over the tax rate here in a minute, but I wanted y'all to understand those things, that it takes a lot to fund government.

[28:24] You heard two different aspects of the employees.

[28:27] The county does do a 2% raise across the board.

[28:30] We this year had very few that were outside of that 2% raise.

[28:34] We had a struggle with law enforcement.

[28:37] We did look at what Midland County is doing right now.

[28:39] We are well under $10,000 less than what Midland County offers their starting deputies.

[28:46] That is a challenge that we face.

[28:48] One of those things that we do offer is a tremendous benefit package.

[28:51] And we have a rich history in Ector County of offering that, and that's a program that we discuss with our employees that we try to advertise.

[28:59] Now again to employees, it's hard to worry about the benefit package in your retirement package when you can't pay the bills.

[29:05] And so we also know that that is a reality.

[29:07] So that is something that this commissioner's court weighs every single time that we look at salaries, we look at competitive markets.

[29:13] And we look at those folks who we are employing.

[29:15] There's folks in the county clerk's office in Jennifer Martin's office that as soon as five o'clock kids they got to go run to their second job.

[29:22] And a lot of them are on government subsidy because of those salaries.

[29:26] And it's just a challenge that we navigate and so we do try to offer those competitive benefit packages.

[29:31] Again, this year, we'll talk about the tax rate here in a second.

[29:34] We did lower the tax rate, or we are proposing to lower the tax rate.

[29:38] And again, we did lower those expenditures as well.

[29:41] while still continuing to offer a well-funded actor county that is providing the services that we think is at par with what the community expects.

[29:52] Okay, we'll move on to item number three to consider discussed to gain a serious action to conduct a public hearing on the proposed.

[30:01] So I will talk about the tax rate briefly. So the proposed tax rate is 0.437469. That's a hard number to kind of comprehend per $100 valuation. It is a slight decrease from last year where it was 0.43895. So it's a decrease of 0.001481. I'm sorry, real quick. We have to close out the first public hearing to the budget. Okay. I'll entertain a motion to close out the first public hearing on the budget.

[30:29] So motion by commission or all second by commission,

[30:32] a gardener for the discussion?

[30:33] All the favour, sitting five by saying aye.

[30:35] Aye.

[30:35] Others opposed same side?

[30:36] Motion passes five, zero.

[30:37] My apologies, thank you, Ms. Prentice.

[30:39] All right, number three to consider discussing

[30:40] any serious action to conduct public hearing

[30:41] on the proposed ad volume tax rate for fiscal year 2026, 2027.

[30:45] So what does that mean for the average taxpayer

[30:47] whenever it comes to that decrease?

[30:50] Is it a massive decrease, no?

[30:51] But it is one that we are able to do,

[30:54] and it is one that we want to be able to do.

[30:57] And so, on a $200,000 home that is the equivalent of $2.96, not a lot, but it's something, and we're trying.

[31:06] Again, we're facing the same cost increase that you are at home.

[31:10] I know I have three children, groceries are a lot, diapers are a lot, these things are expensive.

[31:15] But also, so are government goods, road materials, are a rising increase.

[31:19] We have to buy paper and book, paper prices increase, postage increases.

[31:23] But we're still trying to stay within our limited means and our limited budget.

[31:27] As mentioned before, half of our department stayed within that 3% metric and under 3%.

[31:33] And Governor Abbott is championing a deal statewide asking every single agency to stay beneath or have a 3% cut.

[31:41] And so we took that seriously and tried to stay within that 3% growth.

[31:44] So the tax rate again, the MNO rate last year was 0.3295, we were keeping the same MNO tax rate this year.

[31:52] It's something that we have either maintained or continued to decrease Commissioner Gardner, yes, that question.

[31:57] We have found ways to operate government within the same tax rate since we've been in office.

[32:03] The only thing that has increased and yes, last year was a tax increase.

[32:07] That was for the courthouse and for the juvenile justice facility, these large-scale facilities that weren't getting any cheaper ladies and gentlemen.

[32:15] This is basic infrastructure that, again, was taxing our building maintenance team, that was costing taxpayers more.

[32:20] And again, those were facilities that we're going to need to be built.

[32:24] And the least expensive, it's not the cheapest, promise me, it's not a cheap facility.

[32:28] We all know we've seen the amount of zeros tied to that courthouse and through the juvenile detention facility.

[32:34] But it was never going to go down and cost.

[32:36] And so this was the least expensive of the actions we could take.

[32:40] Again, we knew it was inevitable.

[32:42] But that was last year, this year, again, we lowered that tax rate.

[32:45] But that was only the INS that did see that increase.

[32:47] We lowered last year the MNO tax rate this year, again, we left it the same.

[32:51] We lowered the INS, which is our debt service.

[32:54] So that is what we did with our tax rate.

[32:55] That is at least what we are proposing.

[32:57] We will affirm both the budget and the tax rate tomorrow upon our official commissioners'

[33:02] court hearing.

[33:03] We invite you to participate.

[33:05] It is going to be a lengthy agenda.

[33:06] There's over 50 agenda items.

[33:08] So thank you all for coming here today and discussing that with us.

[33:12] With that being said, we will open it up now to discuss the tax rate.

[33:16] We do have some folks who wish to speak and we will stick with the theme and bring forward Mr. Jeff Russell

[33:25] Not often you get to be first and everything I tell you every time every time

[33:31] But you know, I think when we look at our history of tax rights not only with extra county with with our other taxing entities

[33:39] What we see has been a steady

[33:41] trajectory upward over the last number of years and

[33:45] And I know this is becoming an increasingly important part of what the legislature is proposing to look at this next year.

[33:54] You know, I set on the legislative priorities committee for the Republican Party of Texas, and we heard so much testimony from local taxpayers saying,

[34:04] please, can you help us somehow rein in our local governments?

[34:08] It doesn't matter how much money we have, and they always need more.

[34:14] I get it. There's always needs. But you know the other part that I would point out out of the

[34:21] soliloquy that Judge Fawcett gave on all that, you know what he doesn't talk about too is the huge

[34:27] amount of additional revenue that has come into the county because of the tax assistance district.

[34:33] As far exceeded what was planned which was about 15 million hour up to 30 million in climbing,

[34:40] That's great, that's sales tax money, I like sales tax, much better than property tax.

[34:47] It's much water dispersed, doesn't impact people who own homes.

[34:51] But some of that money needs to go to offset some of these things that are, and I understand

[34:58] the rules of how it can only be spent within the tech.

[35:00] But there can be a lot of shuffling of the shells in order to help cut our property tax rates.

[35:07] rates. So I would really encourage this court, go to the new revenue tax rate at the very

[35:16] least this year as you contemplate this year's tax rate. That will bring in the same amount

[35:22] of money. You'll still be taking more money because the sales tax assistance district keeps

[35:27] growing. So you're going to have additional money. Also, you get the advantage of all the

[35:34] additional property values that have been added in new construction and whatnot.

[35:38] So I would really encourage you, let's keep it at the no-new revenue tax rate.

[35:43] Give everybody a small break, thank you.

[35:45] Thank you.

[35:47] An additional note that I wanted to mention regarding some tax rates, and again I like to add perspective in comparisons.

[35:53] Again, we throw out a $43 and some change per $100 valuation, what does that mean?

[35:59] I broke out some similar counties, we know our neighbors in Tom Green County, which is San Angelo.

[36:04] So their tax rate is about $0.04 higher.

[36:07] So what does that mean?

[36:08] It's about a $66 more annually that they pay $60.56 on a $200,000 home.

[36:15] And so that's a good comparison.

[36:17] Taylor County, which is Abilene, is at a $53.14 per $100 valuation.

[36:24] So you would actually be paying on a similar home, $187.86 more.

[36:30] Which is tall county, which is which is tall falls again similar in population.

[36:34] There's is 53.0644, so you'd be paying $186 in 35 cents more on a $200,000 home.

[36:43] And again, if your home is more or less, you can adjust those rates.

[36:46] And then Potter County is proposing a 62.215 cent tax rate, and that would be $369 and 36 cents.

[36:55] So again, just in perspective, we are aware that our neighbors to the East and Midland County have a much lower tax rate, but I'd like to remind folks that they have more oil and gas minerals on their tax roles than our entire county all combined.

[37:08] So it is not a fair equilibrium, no county can really compare with Midland County is quite a challenge, but there are some equitable counties and so understand, and it's not one to say that taxes still are not high.

[37:20] We understand that, and again, that's why we try this good faith effort to lower your taxes.

[37:25] Next, we have Jim Moody.

[37:27] No, I decline.

[37:28] Okay, thank you, Mr. Moody.

[37:29] Thank you for coming.

[37:31] All right, we have Christina samples.

[37:49] Thank you, Samantha Russell, for pushing for an evening meeting.

[37:53] So, everyone, please.

[37:53] Mr. Microphone, please.

[37:57] Can you hear me better?

[38:00] Thank you, Mr. Samantha Russell, for pushing for an evening meeting.

[38:03] And thank you, everyone, for your time, for listening to myself and other taxpayers

[38:06] to voice their concerns.

[38:08] I would like to take a moment to talk about the property taxes.

[38:12] Most of us have to work hard to own a home, to buy a home, and then harder to pay it off.

[38:19] We have to pay property taxes to stay in our paid off home, or we can lose our home if we do not.

[38:27] Everyone in this area does not work in the oil field, and we are not all making six figures.

[38:31] Most of us are making a list in 50,000 a year and have to budget everything.

[38:36] Some of us are even working more than one job.

[38:38] We have many that are also security and disability and they're making around $1,200 a month and they're having to decide what they're going to pay this month and what they have to put off.

[38:47] So yes, a few cents per hundred added on, you know, here, there doesn't matter.

[38:54] Okay, what has been happening is is, you know, those few cents per hundred get added and then a few months later, our appraisals come around and the value on our homes go up.

[39:04] So, therefore, now we're paying a little bit more.

[39:08] Along with that, and we all know our home insurance and everything else goes up as well.

[39:14] Okay, I do not think that some of you, personally, I've ever really had to worry about being in a funding patch.

[39:23] As I do think that maybe you would understand the more importance of a well-worked budget.

[39:29] I believe that everything needs to be re-looked at as you can start by dialing back the plans for the courthouse still some of the 50 plus acres that we bought years ago where they offer 285 where they wanted to build the courthouse along with the detention center and we only ended up putting the detention center.

[39:48] Raw land right now is selling for over $80,000 a acre.

[39:51] There's over 70,000 acres sitting over there extra that we could sell off.

[39:58] We could also look at other properties that extra county owns that we do not use.

[40:02] I also believe that when you get married at the courthouse minus the certification funds,

[40:08] that money right now that judges get into pocket that maybe they should keep that there for

[40:13] or some other funding unless they're doing the ceremony off the princes.

[40:19] We do not have money left in our budget.

[40:23] If you don't have money then say next year they're going to take less out.

[40:26] Maybe they need to do it away with that.

[40:28] Look at the problem areas of all the spending that's going on in the last few months to kind of see where the problems are at.

[40:35] We do need to go back and check the crappy road work that's being done and prior to us paying them.

[40:41] Because most of the time, it's worse after they fixed it.

[40:46] And I know that there's also new talks about six million dollars fixing to go to the health center that they're wanting to move.

[40:54] I think that we need to not do everything at once.

[40:56] We can't do it all.

[40:57] Thank you, Miss Samples.

[40:58] Thank you.

[40:59] Thank you.

[41:00] Next we have Bobby Duncan.

[41:19] Somebody stole part of my stuff, so I'm going to start right here.

[41:25] We're talking about taxes.

[41:27] I checked at 4 o'clock this afternoon, and the price of a barrel of oil is $83, okay?

[41:42] They're all fuel trucks, those heavy dudes that we said at the traffic lights waiting to pass,

[41:49] who are ruining our county roads.

[41:53] I don't know if there's any way possible, but

[41:58] Could we put up a toll road or something for them to think how any big is we would break

[42:05] in?

[42:07] I feel sorry for the people in maintenance who try to keep those roads going, because

[42:12] the streets are awful because of the roads they can travel on.

[42:18] A little more research and some math gave me this data in April of 2026.

[42:30] After County produced 1.6 million barrels of oil.

[42:37] If we take today's price, 87 cents a barrel, 83, whatever,

[42:46] just what that was, 140

[42:53] million,

[42:57] 140 million a month,

[43:02] I had to really count the zeros, I don't count that I, I don't think you do either.

[43:07] And

[43:10] if we take a 12 month estimate, can you guess what it is?

[43:18] 1 billion, 680,000 million dollars.

[43:26] Now, billion,

[43:32] where's our cut?

[43:36] Where is it?

[43:37] Those big corporations are eating us dry.

[43:43] They're taking everything away from us.

[43:45] They're messing up the environment.

[43:48] Our environmental people work night and day trying to keep a long task to keep those

[43:54] drill sites clean and possible.

[43:59] I know a lot of the money goes to public schools.

[44:04] That's the Robin Hood law.

[44:06] It hurts actor County, of course, tremendously.

[44:11] And I know that the state slush fund is billions and billions of dollars.

[44:22] Where's actor County?

[44:25] Why can't we get the money some way for these oil companies?

[44:29] And there are five of you up there to figure out a way to do it.

[44:36] May I have just a moment more?

[44:39] Okay, give the other lady the privilege, thank you.

[44:46] That data center is questionable.

[44:49] It's like the oil field is going to harm our citizens.

[44:53] Please do more research into it.

[44:56] I know that if a child lives within 200, go two and a half.

[45:00] Miles of a data center, their mental development is questionable. And I got this data from the world's largest, or not the world, the nation's largest organization, the National Education Association that has done the research on that. Thank you, Ms. Duncan. Okay. Thank you. I will just answer a question regarding the oil and gas funds. The state does collect a severance tax. And you are correct.

[45:31] Correct, it funds a majority of the state, it funds the ESF, which is the economic stabilization fund, which is the slush fund that you represented.

[45:39] It does fund the permanent school fund that funds our schools, our school system public schools.

[45:44] They say we'd give it to them.

[45:46] It also funds exactly textot, and significantly, and as well as the permanent university fund, which funds are Texas A&M and UT systems.

[45:55] So, we've, I've worked with Representative Landgraff, he's authored some bills regarding bringing a percentage of that oil and gas severance tax back to counties in which it has produced.

[46:06] It has passed the House, several sessions it has failed in the Senate repeatedly.

[46:14] It is something-

[46:25] 500 million dollars across the entire state to all oil and gas producing counties.

[46:29] And over a five-year-period-ector county was slated to receive a whopping $5 million.

[46:34] This past session, they scrapped that $250 million program they didn't even fund it at 500.

[46:39] They scrapped the $250 million program, despite the fact that the Permian Basin funds the entire state.

[46:45] So it is something that I've worked on, it's something that I'm passionate about.

[46:49] Unfortunately, it is something that our state legislature treats us like a mining colony.

[46:52] and there is no willing gas sovereigns funds that come to counties in a tragic scenario, no doubt.

[47:00] Could I make one closing remark?

[47:02] One closing remarks and I respond to you.

[47:04] All right, leadership means stewardship and you are elected leaders for this county.

[47:12] So that puts you in the responsible position of looking after your county and your constituents.

[47:21] Thank you so much.

[47:22] I guess, ma'am, thank you, Ms. Duncan.

[47:25] Next, we have Robert Bailey.

[47:40] Judge, commissioners.

[47:43] Actually, I go by bill.

[47:44] That's what Billy knows me as legal legalities.

[47:47] That's the first name.

[47:49] Along with the property taxes,

[47:52] the small increase on the actual tax rate

[47:56] is not what's killing the people in Ector County.

[48:00] Two years ago, the appraisal district went through and re-appraised.

[48:03] And we went from extremely low property values which I can understand bringing them up where they need to be.

[48:13] But instantly went to high market value property values.

[48:20] 2024 to 2025. My property tax increased 106% 25 to 26. Another 30%. I'm not sure if you're aware of the way the cap extension laws with the state work next year as the exemption goes away.

[48:45] Okay. Is that another 30% on top of it, bringing our taxes that we actually pay to the county, up to almost 200% increase over a three year period.

[49:00] Did you contest these with the appraisal district?

[49:03] Yes, that was my second bullet point that I would like the commissioners to look into.

[49:07] Okay.

[49:08] The hearing, when you walk in and you sit down across from a board of realtors.

[49:18] That's who's hearing my case.

[49:22] That is a conflict of interest.

[49:25] They make more money if the property values are higher in their regular careers.

[49:31] So I would like you guys to look into that and see if we can come up with a way to fix

[49:35] that as well.

[49:36] Where when we do go into those hearings, we have a chance at a fair trial.

[49:43] That's all I have.

[49:44] Thank you.

[49:45] Thank you.

[49:46] Thank you.

[49:47] I will say one thing on the appraisal district, let's say one thing on the appraisal

[49:53] district, the Texas legislature did make a modification in state law.

[49:56] They did add three elected positions to every appraisal district.

[50:01] In Ektor County, they had those three positions up.

[50:04] Nobody filed to run.

[50:06] I think that that would be a terrific one.

[50:08] I would love to see some persons who care about this issue, which is, I think, everybody.

[50:13] Run for those positions.

[50:14] It's kind of who draws the short straw.

[50:17] And who gets appointed to that?

[50:19] So that is something that the legislature created.

[50:21] It was in a special session.

[50:22] It was in the middle of a non-typical legislative time frame.

[50:27] But they did add those positions in.

[50:29] And so that is something that I would look, you know, if you're interested in,

[50:32] you can always reach out to me and we can kind of point you in the right direction.

[50:36] I'd like to make a comment.

[50:37] Yes, absolutely.

[50:37] Okay, so for those that don't know, there are a lot of titles to a lot of entities.

[50:44] and a lot of those titles could be Ector County plus.

[50:48] So you see the Ector County appraisal district,

[50:50] you see the Ector County school district,

[50:52] you see the Ector County us and other Ector County utility district.

[50:58] We're not all associated,

[50:59] we're all different taxing entities.

[51:01] We don't have oversight or control over what they do.

[51:05] So sometimes the misinformation is assuming that we have any oversight

[51:12] provide over those other entities we don't.

[51:15] So I just wanted to make it a clarifying statement.

[51:18] Thank you, Commissioner Hall.

[51:20] Okay, we do have Scott Johnson.

[51:23] One, okay.

[51:25] Thank you, Mr. Johnson.

[51:29] All right, that concludes our public participation.

[51:32] I'd like to say something.

[51:33] Yes, absolutely.

[51:34] I, first of all, I just want to say thank you for everyone that came tonight.

[51:38] I know you're tired, I know you came from work.

[51:41] Thank you for showing up.

[51:43] It's a pleasure to have you here.

[51:45] I know a lot of times you can't come in the day, so it's great to have everyone here.

[51:50] Also, we'll say the judge made some points.

[51:54] I don't agree with them 100%.

[51:56] We did work very hard on the budget.

[51:58] But I do think that we can still make some cuts.

[52:01] And I think that we can save more than the few dollars that we're looking at right now.

[52:05] So I hope tomorrow that we can do that and thank you again for showing up.

[52:16] I will entertain, oh, I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing, thank you Ms.

[52:20] Prentice.

[52:22] Motion by Commissioner Russell, second by Commissioner Simonson for the discussion.

[52:25] All is favourable to the five by saying aye.

[52:27] I'll this post same time motion passed five zero, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

[52:31] Motion by Commissioner Gardner, second by Commissioner Russell, any further discussion?

[52:35] All is favourable to the five by saying aye.

[52:37] All right, let's post same time motion passed five zero.

[52:39] Thank you, folks.

[52:39] I appreciate y'all.

Aug 24, 2026 Special Commissioners Court

Agenda

Transcript