Dallas County commissioners unanimously rejected a proposed raise for two dozen elected officials as the governing body on Tuesday began to tackle next year’s budget.
Still up for debate is a 2% salary bump for about 6,500 non-elected county employees, estimated to cost about $10 million. That raise would be considered a “market increase” — part of the county’s long-term effort to make civil service jobs competitive with those in the private sector.
While most of the five commissioners signaled support for raises for government employees, J.J. Koch said he would oppose them and urged his colleagues to consider more cuts.
Koch, a Republican who represents northern Dallas County, said he was concerned about future budget cycles. Government budgets are susceptible to downturns years after a recession.
“If we’re sitting here in September 2021 and 11% of our value has gone away and we have to raise taxes that much, we’ll be kicking ourselves for not skipping over these raises,” Koch said, referring to a worst-case scenario.
The county’s billion-dollar budget is coming into clearer focus ahead of a Sept. 15 vote by commissioners. The county’s discretionary budget is expected to hold steady at its current level, despite earlier fears that the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent economic fallout would wreck local governments.
Instead, the county for the first time in a decade is set to lower its property tax rate, by about 1.38%. If adopted, the new rate will be slightly less than 24 cents per $100 of assessed value.
However, not every resident would see a lower bill. The county levies taxes based on assessed property value. If a business or homeowner’s property value increased, they would probably see a larger invoice. If a person’s property value stayed flat, they should see a decrease of about $3.36 per $100,000 of assessed property, according to a county estimate.
Other changes to the proposed budget include an additional $1.3 million in medical benefits for employees, $2.5 million to replace county vehicles, and $1.2 million for body cameras for law enforcement officers. The county is also asking commissioners to approve creating 38 new “critical” positions throughout the government for a total of $3 million. That’s a fraction of the 161 jobs departments requested at the beginning of the budget cycle, staff said.
Several residents, following the lead of Gov. Greg Abbott, sharply criticized commissioners Tuesday for suggesting a pay raise during a global health crisis.
Abbott said Sunday on Twitter that residents should “tell @JudgeClayJ that the last thing he should do is give himself and other Dallas County elected officials a pay raise.”
Tell @JudgeClayJ that the LAST thing he should do is give himself and other Dallas County elected officials a pay raise.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 30, 2020
He stands to make more than $200,000 a year.https://t.co/hjyAFuDn0l
The tweet was the Republican’s latest shot at Jenkins, a Democrat. The two have quarreled since March over how best to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
Jenkins, the county’s top elected official, has never voted for a raise for elected officials and has taken one only after being reelected.
“Everybody knows where I am on raises” for elected officials, he said. “Everybody, including Gov. Abbott, knows I don’t support those.”
The county staff proposed the raises for elected officials largely to coincide with the proposed increase for staff members.
Commissioner Theresa Daniel, who signaled last week that she’d be open to the raise, ultimately voted against it because of the “great pain” in the community.
An elected official may still appeal the commissioners’ decision, triggering a panel of county residents to weigh in. That’s what happened last year when commissioners initially rejected a 4% increase for Dallas County leaders. The commissioners reversed their decision on a 2-0 vote after the appeals panel approved raises for two constables.
Rodney Anderson, the Dallas County Republican Party chairman, called the mere suggestion of a raise absurd.
“Today’s vote is the first fiscally responsible action that I’ve seen from the Dallas County Commissioners Court since the pandemic began,” he said in a statement.
