Denton County commissioners were presented with a proposed $396 million budget for the 2024 fiscal year during their meeting Tuesday.
Alejandro Moreno, the county’s budget officer, broke down the proposed budget, which included a 14% increase in the county’s law enforcement pay scale, road improvements and a proposed tax rate reduction of nearly 3 pennies.
Proposed budget breakdown
About $3.54 million of the $396 million budget would be used for public safety, which includes a 14% slide in the pay scale that would increase compensation for law enforcement. The budget would also include more funding for fire and rescue agencies.
“All of that [public safety increase] is related to the increase in population in areas of Denton County,” Moreno said.
Moreno also said the proposed public safety funding is based on the impact of inflation on various public safety budgets, increasing the funding for inmate food and budgeting a portion for out-of-county inmate expenses.
About $2.49 million would be used for judicial and legal systems. With an approved budget, Moreno said, funding would add five new positions in the district attorney’s office to assist a second grand jury.
“Denton County does currently have a grand jury with grand jurors that meet once per week to hear felony cases for indictment,” Moreno said. “So the number of filings has simply reached a point where we need to allocate these positions to make a second grand jury feasible.”
Moreno said the rest of the funds used for the judicial and legal system would be related to court-related expenditures.
About $1.7 million of the proposed budget would be allocated for road and bridge improvements. The funds would increase the amount to pay for roads using a “pay-as-you-go” system rather than issuing debt for county roads. The total also includes additional costs due to inflation.
Another proposed use of budgeted funds is to increase the county employee pay scale by 5% to ensure starting salaries don’t fall behind the market.
Moreno said Denton County ranks third lowest among the top 15 Texas counties with 1.95 employees per capita. Denton County continues to decline in the number of employees per 1,000 residents, falling from a high of 2.29 employees per 1,000 residents in 2014 to the current rate of 1.95 employees per 1,000 residents, according to a Commissioners Court news release.
In 2022-23, the rate was 2.02 employees per capita.
Proposed tax rate
Moreno recommended a proposed tax rate of 18.9485 cents per $100 property valuation, nearly a 3-cent reduction from last year’s rate of 21.7543 cents per $100 valuation. Moreno said the proposed property tax rate would be the lowest rate since 1986.
The proposed tax rate of 18.9485 cents is a no-new-revenue rate — the rate that would provide Denton County with approximately the same amount of revenue as previous years.
Even though the average taxable home value is increasing, the average Denton County homeowner would see a decrease of $22.35 in taxes from the previous year, due to the significant decrease in the tax rate, according to a Commissioners Court news release.
Using the proposed tax rate and the average 2023 Denton County home value of $448,754, Denton County would account for 9% of the overall annual property taxes owed by residents living in the city of Denton, according to the news release. Denton ISD taxes would account for 64% of the tax bill, while Denton city taxes would be 27%.
Denton County Precinct 3 Commissioner Bobbie Mitchell and Precinct 4 Commissioner Dianne Edmondson said lowering the property tax rate is vital because voters recently passed Denton ISD’s $650 million bond.
“I think this is important for the citizens to know we passed that $650 million bond election, and we’re still lowering the tax rate,” Mitchell said.
Commissioners will hold a public hearing to approve the proposed budget at 10 a.m. Sept. 12.