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County tax assessor-collector Debbie Pogue Mitchell discusses special taxing units with the commissioners/ Staff photo by Taylor Nye -
Station 20 Chief Andy Endsley reviews his standard operating guidelines before presenting them to the commissioners court/ Staff photo by Taylor Nye
Station 20 procedures authorized
The Hopkins County Commissioners Court authorized the county as a special taxing unit and approved the Hopkins County fire station 20 handbook, among other items of business on Monday morning.
After convening at 9:03 a.m., the commissioners unanimously approved a request from Farmers Electric Cooperative, Inc. to construct an electrical power distribution system. The system would cross County Road 2174, located Precinct 2. Pct. 2 Commissioner Greg Anglin verified to the court he had checked the address and everything was in order.
The court then opened the floor to citizen comments. No citizens were present for comments at that time.
The court then considered the tax rate be calculated at 8% in the manner provided for as a special taxing unit. According to Texas Senate Bill 2, a special taxing unit is an appraisal unit, such as a school, junior college or hospital district. The county appraisal district appraises property located in the county, while local taxing units set tax rates and collect property taxes based on those values, according to the Texas state comptroller.
According to county tax assessor-collector Debbie Pogue Mitchell, because of the COVID-19 disaster declaration, Hopkins has the option to authorize itself as a special taxing unit. Without the disaster declaration, the county would need to hold a vote to ask citizens if they want to become a special taxing unit, Pogue Mitchell said. However, the outcome is the county will keep more of its property taxes in the county, rather than sending them off to the state, according to county judge Robert Newsom.
“We are planning a conservative budget and we’re only making changes where we have to,” Newsom stated. “We’re looking out for the county and also our employees, we want to make sure they’re able to raise their families.”
The amount of property taxes kept by the county are usually capped at 3.5%, but due to the disaster declaration, that cap will rise to 8%, Newsom and Pogue Mitchell stated.
“We won’t push on that 8%,” Newsom clarified.
Pct. 1 Commissioner wanted to make sure the court reviewed the state attorney general’s ruling that allowed commissioner’s courts to designate counties as special taxing units.
“I don’t want something to change in the middle of all this and all of a sudden we’re breaking the rules,” Barker stated.
Newsom stated he believed the widespread nature of the governor’s COVID-19 disaster declaration made HB-2’s disaster clause clear.
“The disaster was declared in 254 counties, so our attorney believes… it was triggered, the disaster part of that plan,” Newsom stated. “It allows us to have more freedom to budget during these difficult times. Hopkins County has definitely been hit.”
According to the Texas Municipal League, the state can "authorize a taxing unit other than a special taxing unit to temporarily use a voter-approved rate of eight percent if any part of the taxing unit is located in an area declared a disaster area by the governor or president of the United States."
The court unanimously approved the measure. According to Pogue Mitchell, it will be approximately a week or so before she can present the court with budget projects based off of tax valuations.
The court then moved on to consideration of Hopkins County station 20 fire department standard operating guidelines. Station 20 fire chief and emergency management coordinator Andy Endsley appeared before the court with the standard operating guidelines, which totaled some 400 plus pages.
Endsley told the court the process of revision for the standard operating guidelines happened bi-annually (once every two years).
“We always want to push this through and get it on record,” Endlsey stated. He also welcomed the commissioners to visit station 20 to read through the guidelines if they so wished.
New to the 2020 edition of the guidelines are operating procedures for three full-time firefighters, whereas station 20 has previously employed only volunteers, Endsley said.
“We’ve just updated our policy to be more efficient in our department,” Endsley said. “They’re very solid employees and we appreciate the additional manpower, they’ve been a huge blessing to our county. They get along with the volunteer system that we have in our county.”
The court unanimously accepted the station 20 standard operating guidelines.
With no further business, the court was adjourned at 9:30 a.m.