[0:01] All right. Good afternoon. It is August 20, 4, 2020, 6, 6 o'clock PM, an act of kind of commissioner's quarters now in session. If you'll please rise for the invocation by commissioner Samantha Russell, pledge allegiance by commissioner Gregson.

[0:57] As with all meetings of the

[1:07] at the front table.

[1:08] Oh, we asked you to fill it out in its entirety and bring that forward to Jennifer Martin,

[1:11] who is our wonderful county clerk, and then she'll pass it along to me and record it into

[1:15] the minutes.

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

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

[1:21] 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 tea bowl game.

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

[1:40] All right.

[1:41] 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.

[1:58] Judge Falsik, commissioners.

[1:59] I wanted to bring two things to that.

[2:02] Is that better?

[2:03] Yes.

[2:03] Okay.

[2:05] I wanted to bring two things before the court to not.

[2:08] 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

[2:19] of meeting records involving Judge Paulsett, his office Zachary Zal and New Air Energy,

[2:25] and Digital and Texas Critical Data Centers and the related entities.

[2:29] And instead of producing the records, I can even went to the Texas Attorney General and

[2:34] argue that the project communications should be withheld under the economic development exception

[2:39] section 552.131 of the Public Information Act. The county specifically argued that disclosure

[2:46] would harm ongoing negotiations involving this project. The attorney general has since ruled

[2:52] in that case, and has ordered the county to turn over those responsive information to me.

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

[3:06] So it's very important that the county, it's here to take his law that Attorney General

[3:11] has ruled, those documents should be delivered, and we need to get into why they have

[3:17] not yet been produced.

[3:19] Those have been produced?

[3:21] Yes.

[3:21] And we got the Attorney General letter about, I think, two weeks after Mr. Russell, we were actually

[3:26] trying to find it.

[3:27] We did get it, and those documents have been released, Mr. Russell, if you don't have them,

[3:30] please let us know.

[3:31] Okay.

[3:32] I have to see them as of this afternoon when they've been sent out, but thank you for that.

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

[3:37] OK, thank you.

[3:38] The second thing is I'd like to talk about the county,

[3:43] New County Cemetery.

[3:46] There was comment made during the budget hearings

[3:50] by Commissioner Simmons that kind of alluded

[3:52] to the fact whether he wondered aloud whether

[4:01] the county moving forward with a new cemetery

[4:04] was even legal under Texas law.

[4:07] I did some digging into it, and it sent over to Ms.

[4:12] Prentice, my research, but it looks very much like the county may be in violation of Texas

[4:19] law and building a new cemetery unless it's for the express and complete and only purpose

[4:25] of interning poppers, which the county is legally required to take care of, but I would

[4:36] really, really encourage the court to, until we get a written ruling out of our county

[4:43] attorney and more importantly, I think maybe a written ruling out of the Texas Attorney General's

[4:47] office to put a halt on that project until it is determined that that project can legally

[4:54] move forward. Thank you. Next we have Joanne Kies.

[5:13] I don't have a statement. I have some bullet points. I went back and did my homework

[5:18] as far as the county can and can control for data centers. I broke it down into two to what

[5:25] the city has power to do and what the county has power to do so that we can hit the right

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

[5:38] Chapter 312 tax abatements. Countries can contractually buying developers to specific local standards regarding noise mitigation,

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

[5:52] Temporary moratoriums, we've heard that didn't work in Hokeh County because those

[5:57] fakes faced strict legal scrutiny, and are meant to by time rather than serve as a permit

[6:01] ban, but I think we're all fine with Hokeh Temporary moratorium just so we can figure out

[6:06] how this is actually going to work.

[6:09] Rotant infrastructure regulation, county, county's maintain explicit authority over county

[6:14] road usage, overweight vehicle permits, and subdivision infrastructure.

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

[6:23] traffic.

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

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

[6:36] here as far as flooding.

[6:39] Commissioners can leverage new state-level audit pauses from the governor's office,

[6:44] coordinate with the Texas Association of Counties and Implement permitted local checklists for public safety noise and infrastructure.

[6:52] Permitting and development checklists adopt adopt objective local safety road use traffic and noise mitigation checklists that fall safely under existing statutory county road and public health authorities rather than band county zoning.

[7:07] joint county coalitions. That's a thing. I'm sort of learning about it now.

[7:14] Counties can engage with the Texas Association of Counties to participate in ongoing legislative

[7:19] round tables and coordinate joint pushes for statutory local authority for unincorporated areas ahead of the next legislative session.

[7:30] And then I have a little bit of information just a blurb without revenue impact. The Texas Controller

[7:35] of Public Accounts estimates tax exemption for data centers have caused, have surged past 3.3 billion.

[7:45] That's a lot of money worth throwing away. That was the only points I had. I'm happy to send

[7:51] my research if anybody's interested. Thank you.

[7:58] next up we have Justin Malcolm

[8:09] good evening I came here after work because I

[8:13] specifically was told that this is a more direct avenue to talk about date

[8:18] data centers and their harms on the environment and working population here. I have

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

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

[8:33] hard. And as someone who has raised a Christian, you know, I believe that these data centers

[8:38] that support these new AI companies are costing families and will raise prices on energy

[8:45] on water, especially in this town where even West Odessa water is a dire need. And data

[8:58] centers

[8:58] costs two to three million gallons of water. They use two to three million gallons of water.

[9:05] like almost every day, and A.I. itself has,

[9:17] A.I. itself is, if you're a parent, you have a

[9:20] son, you have a daughter, A.I. you know, they use this phone every day, and they are able

[9:26] to access this app that connects us the internet, and can tell them things that, you know, as

[9:33] parents are concerning for us.

[9:35] And as a city, as a community, it's deeply

[9:41] concerning to me, and it should be deeply

[9:43] concerning to everyone in this room

[9:45] who is really profiting off of these AI data centers.

[9:48] And data centers will do nothing for this community

[9:51] to things that this community needs,

[9:53] especially in times of extreme cold and extreme heat,

[9:57] with our electricity sometimes going out,

[10:00] intermittent blackouts across town,

[10:02] Even if it's just a small house, it's deeply concerning and that's why if you're just just someone who's in this town, someone who's working, if you're in this town and you're someone who's working, this should be deeply concerning for all of us.

[10:20] Thank you.

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

[10:35] Good evening.

[10:37] I'm here to acknowledge to ledger when no, my name is Jesse Pores.

[10:42] I'm running for County Commissioner of Peace and for.

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

[10:50] work hard and also I am a public servant community organizer.

[10:54] I also am military veteran.

[10:57] At the time, I want to let people know that I'm here to hear the concerns.

[11:02] 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 a manager, but I will do my best to find the answer or find a person that can give me the answer to acknowledge to let people know what's going on.

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

[11:28] Thank you, Ms. Forest. Next, we have Francisco Morales.

[11:47] Hello, my name is Francisco Morales, and I'm here to tell the people who don't know that they want to build AI data centers here in Ector County.

[11:56] Our elected officials have been meeting privately with these tech billionaires.

[11:59] They want to give them tax breaks, and they claim that the data centers are going to build jobs, but 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, 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. They are going to release more emissions than entire fucking countries.

[12:30] Like, this is fucking crazy, guys. What the hell?

[12:33] All right, and then no, hey, that's we don't let the ruck me. No, I will interrupt. I will interrupt. No, you will not. Yeah, this is my time. No, this is my time start. I'm sorry. You violated the rule for time any more.

[12:46] All that air is going to make us. Let's go. We're going to have to ask you to remove the room.

[12:56] Yeah, I haven't finished talking, and I still have more time. No.

[12:59] Okay, I'm one right now.

[13:00] We take my time.

[13:01] You for instance, you have your old language.

[13:03] I'm just said to call the First Amendment the right ages.

[13:05] You know about that, France.

[13:07] You can tell me?

[13:07] You can keep unwittingly.

[13:08] You can attempt to court and be fine.

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

[13:12] Please step away.

[13:13] Please step away.

[13:13] He'll be held by you.

[13:14] I may finish my comment.

[13:15] No.

[13:15] I'm not going to let you finish, you violated those rules.

[13:18] Please leave it up.

[13:20] You're a public servant.

[13:21] Well, they're all the vines.

[13:22] Thanks, Cisco.

[13:23] I'll give you a step out here.

[13:25] We'll go in now.

[13:26] Talk.

[13:26] You're not talking you're done. No, I'm not you're done. I have my time. I'm on my time back. Sir

[13:34] Your Francesco, I'm in the right way. What's the Constitution they're not for the Constitution? Let's go

[13:40] It's done. Okay, Francisco. This is bullshit. No, sir. It's not. Come on. I'm not talking to me

[13:46] Come on. Why would I talk to you? Are you are you voting on tax breaks? No, I'm not the first

[13:51] But you're in here. You're disrupting a beating

[13:53] It's a violation of detectives.

[13:55] It's not. There's nothing. It's my public comment. It's my time.

[13:58] That is not disruption. I'm sorry sir. I'm sorry. You believe that.

[14:01] It is a disruption.

[14:02] So please people stay both.

[14:03] Sir, the people here.

[14:05] Don't just go.

[14:05] Look at Cisco. Please.

[14:07] Oh, great.

[14:07] How about my shit?

[14:08] I don't know.

[14:09] I don't know.

[14:09] Sir, jizzers.

[14:10] I'm not searchin' or see you.

[14:11] You're the group you clearly.

[14:12] My paper.

[14:13] That is mine.

[14:13] I know.

[14:14] It's a cool question.

[14:18] All right.

[14:19] Next we have Donald Rutledge.

[14:32] Good evening.

[14:33] Good evening.

[14:34] I'd like to see you in my

[14:40] future in the mind, thank you.

[14:42] We're good.

[14:44] All right.

[14:46] What has precinct one

[14:48] commissioner done for West

[14:50] Odessa?

[14:51] I've made numerous phone calls,

[14:54] lift messages,

[14:56] been up here numerous times,

[14:58] no response.

[15:00] Our roads are destroyed. Congratulations on getting trip after the redone. You got the insane of tenths.

[15:07] Are you of a traffic that knocks us? That road is destroyed. It's tearing people's vehicles up.

[15:15] It's not designed for semis, sand trucks. I think we were loaded to the guild of real pop. I'm tired of sand trucks going down my alley.

[15:27] And I've been front of my house.

[15:29] This is supposed to be a result of its ulary, but it's not handled that way.

[15:36] Rheast aspect of the last five years in Nigeria, which is considered a third-year-old country.

[15:43] West Odessa is rapidly becoming that third-year-old country.

[15:47] You have people, vagueness everywhere, where little pop-ups, stores, everywhere you look.

[15:54] I don't understand how we let this go.

[16:00] Recently, probably about a year and a half ago, my next door of neighbor has some

[16:05] sisters, more friend came over angry, he was strangling the girl, they called me to

[16:13] help.

[16:14] Of course, I'm not going with me, he quit, we call the shares, I don't have

[16:21] later they finally set up. We have no law enforcement. We have two million of the 18-wheeler

[16:29] drivers do not belong on a road at all. Just coming to this meeting on a knock-stop.

[16:39] Let's record them all from the interstate. I had a wait on a seven centrucks to start

[16:47] get them a service room.

[16:49] But this is just a quick ridiculous.

[16:52] Probably close to 20 years ago, I got a letter along with

[16:58] under arrest as my area from the county.

[17:02] If you give us $2,500 right now, when we install water lines,

[17:08] you don't have to pay for the hook-up.

[17:11] But you have to plug your water bill.

[17:15] You don't want to plug my water will.

[17:17] We still don't have water out there either.

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

[17:23] They talk about how water is precious.

[17:26] Yeah, it is.

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

[17:31] More than anything else.

[17:34] Thank you very much.

[17:36] Mr. Redless just for clarifying statement.

[17:39] You that letter did not come from the county that he came from me.

[17:42] Or the water supply company that was looking and getting started out there.

[17:45] We've heard similar stuff.

[17:46] With that $200.

[17:47] I'm supposed to.

[17:48] And I will say then, I look forward to hearing years and those folks who said,

[17:52] hey, men to more law enforcement to supporting our budget.

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

[17:57] We've put $8 million in road construction, $4 million in road maintenance and $2 million in funding

[18:02] additional road studies to expand roads like Moss Avenue, like Trip and like Knox.

[18:08] Moves to do great on trip.

[18:09] Nobody goes the home.

[18:10] And we should have some water coming down, uh, we don't want towards Knox.

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

[18:15] because when echo county you feel they just came in took over here by water rate doubled, not worth it.

[18:26] Thank you. 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 to consider discussing any

[18:36] serious action to conduct a public hearing on the proposed budget for fiscal year

[18:42] 2026, 2027, we do have two members of the public who wish to participate. Mr. Jeff Russell.

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

[18:57] You know, as we look at the budget,

[18:59] I think when we start as as as average citizens and we start looking at these numbers and we see hundreds of millions of dollars.

[19:07] I think a lot of times we have a hard time relating to that in our day-to-day lives. Those are numbers we don't typically deal with.

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

[19:19] That number is $95,795.

[19:23] So roughly $96,000.

[19:24] That's what the county, when you take all the funded positions, and you look at their salaries

[19:30] and all the benefits that go with it, that's the average amount that county employees get

[19:37] funded position. So, $96,000. Of that, 44% of that comes in the form of benefits. So,

[19:48] retirement alone is about $10.5 million a year. Healthcare insurance is another 9.1 million.

[19:55] And it isn't simply because the county has hard dramatically more people. I looked at a five year,

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

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

[20:14] personnel costs increased nearly 29% or about 18 million dollars additional. Payroll itself

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

[20:28] okay, what is this compared to? So I looked at our school district. So the counties at

[20:31] In 1996, the school district is right at $20,000 per employee less in total FTE and in compensation

[20:42] 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

[20:58] in their family coverage is really low at about $260 a month for a family coverage to give you

[21:05] a comparison of that.

[21:06] My wife just recently moved from East YCD to MISD in order to get me on her insurance.

[21:14] We had to add about $1,200 a month.

[21:17] Just for me.

[21:18] No kids.

[21:19] Just for spouse.

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

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

[21:32] We've been giving increases in some of them quite large increases.

[21:36] We've really kind of gone above that level.

[21:39] I think county employees ought to be paid fairly absolutely.

[21:43] But I think it ought to bear some semblance to what's going on in the product sector.

[21:47] We hear this discussion a lot.

[21:48] private sector brushes, public sector, but my best analysis, you know, county employees at

[21:55] 96,000, they make more than about 65% of the taxpayers that are helping to fund those

[22:01] positions.

[22:03] So I think if there's a place to wrestle, yeah, I think if there's a place to cut, that might

[22:06] be one good place to live.

[22:10] Um, next we have Ms. Bobby, Bobby, Bobby Duncan.

[22:17] He's famous.

[22:18] I know she is.

[22:21] Thank you.

[22:22] I'll take you out.

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

[22:37] Good evening. First of all, let me tell you, thank you for serving.

[22:43] You know, to ever get thanks. So thanks. Now I'm here to crucify you.

[22:51] I have a retired teacher.

[22:56] I have spent a hundred years in the highest rate.

[22:59] Really, 43.

[23:02] It is ECI-St.

[23:04] And I retired.

[23:07] I would be today, I get less take home pay than I did 25 years ago

[23:15] when I first retired.

[23:16] And that's because the state of Texas doesn't like us.

[23:20] And I hope you like your employees better than they like us.

[23:26] Because a 2% raise is 2% of nothing.

[23:34] It won't buy a bag of groceries.

[23:36] It certainly is not going to pay the proposed tax increase

[23:41] that you're going to impose for the Citizens Effect for County,

[23:45] or you hope to.

[23:49] It's going to affect everybody at free level if they pay $200 a month for a one-room

[23:58] shack that are rents going up and they won't be able to buy groceries.

[24:04] If they pay 10 like 3,000 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 thought I was lucky, I just paid $50.

[24:40] It's pretty hard out there, folks, and your employees deserve a raise.

[24:44] But there's a special group of employees and one of our previous commentator, comment about it.

[24:52] Our sheriff's department is understaffed, overworked, and underpaid.

[25:00] You compare their salaries to that of Midland and those of Martin County.

[25:08] We can't get people. They're going to go there.

[25:13] A two percent raise for somebody who risk his or her life is like giving one peanut to me for a treat.

[25:27] That's about what it is.

[25:31] So let's look at the budget again, please.

[25:35] Get that raise up for those people who risk their lives for us for this county every single day.

[25:44] Thank you.

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

[25:53] In regards to this budget of the 60 general fund accounts, we have 60 different departments

[25:58] and different accounts, some departments have multiple, like Ms. Martin over there in the kind

[26:01] of Claire, she has multiple.

[26:05] 19 of those 60 saw decreases this year from last year.

[26:09] Overall, we're cutting about $5 million of the general fund and expenditures this year.

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

[26:19] saw an increase under 3% and as Ms. Duncan mentioned, that's likely due to the 2% increase

[26:25] in salaries, just to keep folks working here in public service.

[26:31] And then 11 of those 60, again, saw over 3% and some of those were expanding the duties,

[26:38] expanding the offices, adding personnel where it was needed.

[26:41] Some of those notable functions are the county attorney,

[26:44] getting a public information officer to handle the public information request,

[26:49] as Mr. Russell mentioned.

[26:50] We had over 300 of those public information requests coming over a 45-day span,

[26:55] and one person is handling all of those.

[26:57] Each one of those require legal documentation,

[27:00] reductions, correspondence with the attorney general's office,

[27:03] correspondence with the county attorney's office,

[27:04] and we continue to be flooded by those.

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

[27:14] The tax assessor collector did receive two additional staff because we are seeing an additional 1100 new registered vehicles from out-of-state registers coming to actor 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.

[27:33] But we figured that we would add to Miss Lindy's office.

[27:36] And then another note we did cut a million dollars in the building maintenance fund we are preparing for new new facilities, and we did not think it just to continue to spend at those high levels whenever we are building new facilities.

[27:51] And I 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. Again, our general fund expense this year is $80 million, $867,120.

[28:02] 20.

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

[28:13] Decrease of $1.4 million from $68,750,000 to $139.

[28:19] I'll go over the tax rate here in a minute, but I wanted y'all to understand those things

[28:22] 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% race 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 and actor county of offering that.

[28:54] And that's a program that we discuss with our employees that we try to advertise.

[28:58] Now again to employees, it's hard to worry about the benefit package in your retirement package when you can't pay the bills

[29:04] And so we also know that that is a reality

[29:07] So that is something that this commissioners court ways every single time that we look at salaries

[29:11] We look at competitive markets and we look at those folks who we are employing. There's folks in the county in the county clerk's office in Jennifer morons office

[29:18] That as soon as five o'clock kids, they got to go run to their second shop and a lot of them are on a government subsidy

[29:24] because of those salaries, 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. 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, 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 certain action

[29:58] to conduct a public hearing on the proposed-

[30:00] Add valorem tax rate. So I will talk about the tax rate briefly. So the proposed tax rate is 0.437469. That's a hard

[30:10] number to kind of comprehend per hundred dollar valuation. It is a slight decrease from last year

[30:15] where it was 0.43895. So it's a decrease of 0.001481.

[30:20] Judge, I'm sorry, real quick. We have to close out the first public hearing to the budget.

[30:24] Okay. All intertain emotion to close out the first public hearing on the budget.

[30:30] Motion by Commissioner, all second by Commissioner Gardner, and for the discussion.

[30:33] All the fair of the state and five by saying aye.

[30:35] All right.

[30:35] That's the same sign.

[30:36] Motion passes five zero.

[30:37] My apologies.

[30:37] Thank you, Ms. Prentiss.

[30:39] All right.

[30:39] Number three to consider discussing answer.

[30:41] Actually, I should conduct public hearing on the proposal.

[30:42] I have a long tax rate for fiscal year, 2026, 2027.

[30:45] So what does that mean for the average taxpayer whenever it comes to that decrease?

[30:50] Is it a massive decrease note, but it is one that we are able to do, and it is one that

[30:55] we want to be able to do.

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

[31:05] and we're trying. Again, we're facing the same cost increase that you are at home. I know I have

[31:11] three children, groceries are a lot. Diapers are a lot. These things are expensive, but also

[31:15] so are government goods, road materials are arising increase. We have to buy paper and book,

[31:21] paper prices increase, postage increases, but we're still trying to stay within our limited

[31:26] means in our limited budget, as I mentioned before, half of our department stayed within

[31:30] that 3% metric in under 3%.

[31:34] And Governor Abbott is championing a deal statewide asking every single agency to stay beneath

[31:39] 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 .3295.

[31:49] We were keeping the same MNO tax rate this year, it's something that we have either maintained

[31:54] or continue to decrease Commissioner Gardner, yes, that question.

[31:58] We have found ways to operate government within the same tax rates since we've been in

[32:03] office.

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

[32:07] That was for the courthouse and for the juvenile justice facility, these large-scale

[32:12] facilities that weren't getting any cheaper ladies in gentlemen.

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

[32:19] costing taxpayers more and again, those were facilities that were going to need to be

[32:24] And the least expensive, it's not the cheapest.

[32:27] Promise me, it's not a cheap facility.

[32:29] We all know we've seen the amount of zeros tied to that

[32:31] 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.

[32:43] This year, again, we lowered that tax rate.

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

[32:48] We lowered last year the M&O tax rate.

[32:50] This year, again, we left it the same.

[32:51] we lower 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

[33:00] upon our official commissioner's 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.

[33:18] And we will stick with the theme and bring forward Mr. Jeff Russell.

[33:25] Not often you get to be first and every time every time, but you know, I think when we look at our history of tax rights, not only with extra county, with our other taxing entities, what we see has been a steady trajectory upward over the last number of years and I know this is becoming an increasingly important part of what the legislature is proposing to look at this next year.

[33:54] I set on the legislative parties community for the Republican Party of Texas, and we heard

[33:59] so much testimony from local taxpayers saying, please can you help us somehow rein in

[34:06] our local governments?

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

[34:15] There's always needs, but you know, the other part that I would point out out of the

[34:22] I'll look at you that Judge Falsett gave on all that.

[34:25] What he doesn't talk about, too, is the huge amount of additional revenue that has come

[34:30] in to the county because of the tax assistance district.

[34:34] As far exceeded what was planned, which is about 15 million, now we're up to 30 million

[34:38] in climbing, that's great, that sells tax money, I like sells tax, much better than

[34:46] tax, it's much water dispersed, doesn't impact people who own homes, but some of that money

[34:52] needs to go to offset some of these things that are, and I understand the roles of how

[34:59] it can only be spent within the tax. But there can be a lot of shuffling of the shells in

[35:04] order to help cut our private tax rates. So I would really encourage this court don't go to the

[35:13] new new revenue tax rate at the very least. This year is you contemplate this year's tax rate.

[35:21] That will bring in the same amount of money. You'll still be taking in more money because

[35:25] it's the sales tax assistance district keeps growing. So you're going to have additional money.

[35:30] Also, you get the advantage of all the additional property values that have been added in

[35:37] new construction and whatnot. So I've really encourage you. Let's keep it up the new revenue tax rate.

[35:43] give everybody a small break. Thank you.

[35:45] Thank you.

[35:48] In additional note that I wanted to mention regarding some tax rates and again I like to add

[35:52] perspective in comparisons. Again we throw out a 43 and some change per $100 valuation.

[35:58] What does that mean? I broke out some similar counties. We know our neighbors in Tom Green County,

[36:03] which is San Angelo. Their tax rate is about 4 cents higher. So what does that mean? It's about

[36:09] a $66 more annually that they pay $60.56 on a $200,000 home, and so that's a good comparison

[36:17] Taylor County, which is Abelene, is at a $53.14 per $100 valuation, so you would actually

[36:25] be paying on a similar home $187.86 more, which is a talk county, which is which tough

[36:32] falls again similar in population.

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

[36:42] 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 62.25 cent tax rate,

[36:52] and that would be $369.36.

[36:56] So again, just in perspective, we are aware that our neighbors

[36:59] to the eastern Midland County, have a much lower tax rate, but I'd like to remind folks that

[37:03] they have more in oil and gas minerals on their tax rules than our entire county all combined.

[37:08] So it is not a fair equilibrium, no county can really compare with Midland County's

[37:13] quite a challenge.

[37:14] But there are some equitable counties and so understand, and it's not one to say that taxes

[37:19] 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 didn't plan.

[37:29] Okay, thank you, Mr. Moody.

[37:30] Thank you for coming. All right, we have Christina Samples.

[37:50] Thank you, Samantha Russell, for pushing for an evening meeting.

[37:53] You should block her phone, please.

[37:57] Can I hear me better?

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

[38:03] And thank you everyone for your time for listening to myself and the other taxpayers to voice their concerns.

[38:09] I would like to take a moment and 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 pay off homes, or we can lose our home if we do not.

[38:27] Everyone in this area does not work in the old 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 secured into civilian and they're making around $1200 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 or there doesn't matter.

[38:55] Okay, what has been happening is is, you know, those few cents per hundred get added and then if you months later our presals come around and the vagoner homes go up.

[39:05] so therefore now we're paying a little bit more. Along with that, and we all know our home insurance

[39:11] and everything else goes up as well. Okay. I do not think that some of you, personally, I have

[39:19] ever really had to worry about being in a funding patch. As I do think that maybe you would understand

[39:26] the more importance of a well-worked budget. I believe that everything needs to be re-looked at

[39:32] as you can start by dialing back the plans for the courthouse.

[39:36] Still, some of the 50 plus acres that we bought years ago,

[39:40] where they offered 285, where they wanted to build the courthouse along with a detention center,

[39:44] and we only ended up putting a detention center.

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

[39:52] There's over 70,000 acres sitting over there.

[39:55] Extra, you know, that we could sell off.

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

[40:01] I also believe that when you get married at the courthouse minus the certification funds, that money

[40:08] right now that judges get into pocket that, maybe they should keep that there for some other funding.

[40:15] Unless they're doing this air money off the premises, we do not have money left in our budget.

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

[40:26] Maybe they need to do the way with that.

[40:28] Look at the problem areas of all the spin in this going on

[40:30] in the last few months to find a sea where the problems are at.

[40:35] We do need to go back and check the crappy road work

[40:38] that's being done and prior to us paying them.

[40:42] Because most of the time, it's worse after they fixed it.

[40:47] And I know that there's also a new talks about $6 million

[40:50] fixed in the 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. Thank you, ms.

[40:58] Thank you.

[40:59] Thank you.

[41:00] Next we have Bobby Duncan.

[41:19] Somebody stole part of our stuff.

[41:22] So I'm going to start right here.

[41:26] We're talking about taxes.

[41:30] I checked it for a clock to save food

[41:32] and the price of a barrel of oil is 83 dollars.

[41:42] There are all field trucks.

[41:43] those heavy dudes that we said at the traffic lights waiting to pass, who are ruining our

[41:51] county roads. I don't know if there's any way possible,

[41:58] but could we put up a toll road

[42:00] or something for the, just think, have any meetings? We would break them. I feel sorry for the

[42:09] people in maintenance who try to keep those roads going, because the streets are awful, because

[42:14] of them, or the roads they can travel on.

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

[42:26] In April of 2026, Ector County produced 1.6 million barrels of oil.

[42:37] And if we take today's price 87 cents barrel, or 83, whatever,

[42:47] test with that was 140

[42:53] million.

[42:56] A hundred 40 million a month,

[43:02] I had to really have to zeroes, I don't count that high.

[43:05] I don't think you do either.

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

[43:15] 1 billion $680,000 million dollars.

[43:27] Now, Billion,

[43:32] where's our cut?

[43:36] It's a good question.

[43:36] Where is the legislature?

[43:38] Those big corporations are eating us dry.

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

[43:46] They're messing up the environment.

[43:48] But our environmental people work night and day trying to keep a bomb test 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 in her sector county, of course, tremendously.

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

[44:22] Where is that to County?

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

[44:30] And there are five of you up there to figure out a way to do it.

[44:37] May I have just a moment more?

[44:38] Okay, give the other lady the privilege, thank you.

[44:46] That data center is questionable.

[44:49] It likes the oil field.

[44:51] It's 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 2 and a half.

[45:00] Miles of a data center, their mental development is questionable. And I got this data from the

[45:11] world's largest or not the world, the nation's largest organization, the National Education

[45:17] Association, and he does the research on that.

[45:22] Thank you, Mr. Duncan.

[45:23] Okay. Thank you.

[45:25] I will just answer a question regarding the oil and gas funds. The state does collect a seven

[45:30] tax and you are correct. It funds a majority of the state of funds, the ESF which is the

[45:35] economic stabilization fund, which is the slush fund that you represented. It does

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

[45:44] It would give it to them. It also funds exactly the text in significantly.

[45:50] 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 Langrafe, he's authored some bills regarding bringing

[46:01] a percentage of that oil and gas severance tax back to counties in which it is produced.

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

[46:12] It is certainly a challenge, there are, there is some pennies that are out there regarding

[46:20] the County Transportation Infrastructure Fund, the C-TIF program and it is $500 million across

[46:26] the entire state to all oil and gas producing counties and over a five year peer

[46:30] doctor county was slated to receive a whopping $5 million. This past session, they scrapped

[46:36] that $250 million program, they didn't even fund it at $500. They scrapped the $250 million

[46:40] program despite the fact that the permit base and funds the entire state. So it is something

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

[46:50] that our state legislature treats us like a mining colony and there is no oil and gas

[46:54] severance funds that come to this come to counties and it is a tragic scenario.

[46:59] No doubt.

[47:00] Good.

[47:00] I make one policy.

[47:01] We mark.

[47:02] One policy.

[47:04] All right.

[47:06] 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] Yes, ma'am.

[47:23] Thank you, Ms. Duncan.

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

[47:40] Good.

[47:41] Commissioner.

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

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

[47:45] Okay.

[47:46] Legal, legalities.

[47:48] That's the first name.

[47:49] Along with the property taxes,

[47:51] The small increase on the actual tax rate is not what's killing the people in

[47:58] Ector County. Two years ago the appraisal district went through and

[48:02] re-appraised and we went from extremely low property by use, which I can

[48:10] understand bringing them up where they need to be. But instantly went to

[48:15] high market value property values, 2024 to 2025, my property tax increased 106%

[48:30] 25 to 26, another 30% I'm not sure if you're aware of the way the

[48:39] cap extension laws with the state work, next year is the exemption goes away.

[48:45] 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 the best, my second bullet point that I would like the commissioners to look into.

[49:07] Okay?

[49:09] They're hearing when you walk in and you sit down across from a board of realtors.

[49:19] 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 that

[49:35] 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.

[49:48] I will say one thing on the appraisal district.

[49:52] I will say one thing on the appraisal district, the Texas legislature did make a

[49:55] modification in state law.

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

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

[50:04] Nobody filed to run.

[50:05] I think that that would be a terrific one.

[50:08] I would love to see, since you care about this issue,

[50:11] which is, I think, everybody, run for those positions.

[50:15] 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.

[50:29] And so that is something that I would look,

[50:31] if you're interested in, you can always reach out to me

[50:33] and we can kind of punch in the right direction.

[50:36] Yes, absolutely.

[50:38] Okay, so for those that don't know, there are a lot of titles to a lot of entities and a lot of those titles could be actor county plus.

[50:49] So you see the actor county appraisal district, you see the actor county school district, you see the actor county us and other actor county utility district.

[50:57] We're not all associated. We're all different taxing entities. We don't have oversight or control over what they do.

[51:05] So sometimes the misinformation is assuming that we have any oversight over those other entities we don't.

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

[51:18] Thank you, Commissioner Hall.

[51:20] Okay. We do have Scott Johnson.

[51:24] Thank you, Mr. Johnson.

[51:29] That concludes our public participation.

[51:32] Would you like to say something?

[51:33] Yes, absolutely.

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

[51:38] I know you're tired.

[51:39] 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.

[51:48] 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% we did work very hard on the budget, but I do think that we

[51:59] can still make some cuts and I think that we can save more than the few dollars that we're

[52:04] looking at right now.

[52:06] So I hope tomorrow that we can do that and thank you again for showing us now.

[52:11] Okay.

[52:14] There you go.

[52:16] All right.

[52:17] I will entertain, oh, I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing.

[52:20] Thank you, Ms. Prentice.

[52:22] Motion by Commissioner Russell.

[52:24] Second by Commissioner Simmons.

[52:25] And for the discussion, I'll as per person if I'm by saying aye.

[52:27] I'll as opposed to the same sound motion cast five zero.

[52:29] I'll entertain a motion.

[52:30] 22 adjourned. Motion by Commissioner Gardner, second by Commissioner Russell and your further discussion. All in favor,

[52:36] say to five by saying aye. All in favor. That's the same sign. Motion passed by to you. Thank you folks.

[52:40] We appreciate you all.

Aug 24, 2026 Special Commissioners Court

Agenda

Transcript