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(Photo/Alex Kielar) Stephens County Commissioner’s Court adopted the fiscal year 2026 budget and tax rate at their latest meeting Monday, Sept. 22 after a public hearing in which there were no public commenters.
Stephens County Commissioners Court has adopted the county's fiscal year 2026 budget and the tax rate following a public hearing.
The vote occurred during the commissioner’s court Monday, Sept. 22 meeting in which the commissioners voted unanimously to adopt the budget and tax rate at $0.66539 per $100 of valuation.
“We’ve reached a budget that is in the black, which is important,” County Judge Michael Roach said.
The county sees an increase in revenue in the new fiscal year budget, to $5,692,244.39 from $5,139,095.45 for FY2025.
The adopted budget changed from the original proposed budget, with the court opting to not include full raises for elected officials and county staff. Instead, the budget does include about a 3.5% cost of living adjustment for county employees.
“The court felt that we are just at a place where we can’t continue to tax and burden the citizens. We’re going to have to figure out another way,” Judge Roach said. “We have some projects to make ourselves whole on the deficit that we have had since 2019, and put some stuff in the pipeline that looks promising. But the way Austin is operating, it leaves you with less money every year, more unfunded mandates, that we’re going to have to find a way to not keep taxing citizens. We’re just going to have to live within our means.”
The budget also includes a reduction in road and bridge investments, as the county did not get their community development block grant (CDBG) renewed by the state.
“So that’s going to be tough for a couple years, and we realize that–really tough, because it helped us survive,” Judge Roach said. “We don’t have that money, and that’s a loss of several million dollars over a couple years. But I’m pretty proud of the budget we’ve put together. [Treasurer] Kelsey [Cornwall], you’ve worked extremely hard. A lot of hours on that and we appreciate that so much.”
The adopted tax rate of $0.66539 per $100 of valuation is a decrease from last year’s adopted rate of $0.67280 per $100 valuation for Fiscal Year 2025.
