Commissioners adopt tax rate, budget
The Milam County Commissioners approved the tax rate and budget for the coming year during a meeting on Sept. 28.
The tax rate is set at $0.73 per $100 valuation for the coming year. This is the same tax rate the county has had for the previous two years.
The tax rate will increase the county’s income by 13.08 percent over last year due to rising property values. The expected income from property taxes for 2020 is $11,376,489 according to the Milam County Appraisal District tax rolls.
“Every year the commissioners court is required to prepare a budget,” Milam County Judge Steve Young said. “We meet and talk about what we need and do the best to prepare a budget.”
There was a public hearing held during the meeting, but no one spoke during the hearing.
“We didn’t want to raise the taxes this year, we are going to get by,” Young said. “I think we are doing an outstanding job with our tax rate. Our revenue is going up because people are moving here.”
Young gave an update on the construction ongoing on the professional building at the hospital complex to turn it into an urgent care facility.
“We have exchanged some downtown property in Cameron for the hospital complex,” he said. “The professional building is in the process of being updated, but we have a big problem with asbestos out there. It was used in everything out there. We got an estimate of $81,000 to remove the asbestos. That number has gone up. The demolition done with the removal of the asbestos will help us with the other renovations.”
Money for the renovations is coming from COVID-19 CARES Act funds and the county has a commitment from the City of Cameron and City of Buckholts to use part of their funds for the project also.
The county has a contract with Danielle Janicek to run the urgent care when it is finished. It should be up and running in January.
In other business the commissioners also: recognized Rockdale Reporter Editor Mike Brown for his many years of service to the county upon his retirement; designated Oct. 4-10 as National 4-H Week with a proclamation; approved the external audit report for FY 2019; and appointed a signature committee for mail-in ballots among other things.