This week, the Denton County Commissioners Court approved the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 budget and set the new tax rate, the county’s lowest since 1986.
The new $396,051,109 budget earmarks about $3.54 million for public safety, including a 14% slide of the pay scale for law enforcement, as part of the county’s public safety measures to deal with escalating growth.
“A strong law enforcement plays a vital role in protecting the quality of life in Denton County,” said Precinct 1 Commissioner Ryan Williams.
The new tax rate of $0.189485 is almost three pennies lower than the FY 2023 adopted rate, according to a news release from Denton County.
“During this past year, as our population pushed past the 1 million mark, we have continued to increase our ability to pay-as-you-go for roads as well as road maintenance in an ongoing effort to decrease our debt rate while meeting state mandates such as higher ratios of employees needed per client in our juvenile justice system,” said Denton County Judge Andy Eads, adding that providing increased pay scales for all county employees was equally important to the court.
Key factors in the FY 2023-2024 budget, which goes into effect on Oct. 1, 2023, include:
- Increasing funding for road related expenditures by $1.7 million, increasing the amount to pay for roads using a pay-as-you-go system rather than issuing debt for county roads
- Adding new positions, covering unfunded mandates and handling increases related to the judicial and legal system at a cost of about $2.49 million
- Sliding the pay scale for employees by 5% to ensure starting salaries do not fall behind the market more than at present and to increase retention. 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 the same number of residents. In 2022-2023, the rate was 2.02 employees per capita.
For road maintenance and improvements, $1.7 million is set aside for road projects. The funds will be spent for surface treatment, flex base, lumber, fencing, culvert repairs and more as well as for projects in the permanent improvement fund. The total also includes additional costs due to inflation.
The county also is experiencing economic impacts such as $1.18 million for building maintenance and supplies for HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems in the county’s estimated 30 buildings and an additional $645,709 for costs to run elections during a presidential primary year.
The new tax rate of $0.189485 is a no-new-revenue rate, which is the rate that provides Denton County approximately the same amount of revenue as the previous year from properties taxed in both years. The new tax rate falls well below all but one of the top 15 most populated Texas counties in terms of the county tax rate. Denton County, with an estimated population of just over 1 million, ranks the second lowest in the county tax rate category and is the lowest in the county-wide rate. County-wide rates include additional tax rates for such districts as hospitals, community college, and flood control and port authority – none of which exist in Denton County.
“Taxpayers are top of mind when we go through the budget process because they are also dealing with inflation and other higher costs of living,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Bobbie Mitchell said.
For example, using the new adopted tax rate of $0.189485 and the average 2023 Denton County home value of $448,754, Denton County’s tax rate accounts for 9% of the overall annual property taxes owed by the resident living in the city of Denton. Denton ISD school district tax rates account for 64% while the city of Denton tax rate accounts for 27% of the annual amount paid by property owners.
“We believe our lower tax rate coupled with the initiatives taken by the Texas Legislature in this last session will help lower expenses for our Denton County taxpayers,” Precinct 4 Commissioner Dianne Edmondson said.
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