The Bandera County Commissioners Court reviewed the proposed 2025-26 budget during its Aug. 14 meeting, with County Auditor Darryl Sadler presenting an overview of projected revenues, expenditures and debt obligations.
According to the draft, the county’s total debt obligation stands at $1,660,000. The budget proposes raising $606,974 more in property tax revenue than last year, an increase of 2.88%. Of that amount, $450,604 would come from new property added to the tax roll this year.
Sadler noted that the county will operate with a smaller financial cushion than in previous years. “We’re going to be a lower fund balance that we have been in the past,” Sadler said. “It’s going to be about 41% of our annual spend.”
County Judge Richard Evans emphasized that several major projects are included in the budget, particularly the ongoing radio system upgrade. “This includes the radio project for 2.1 [million], that’s more money than they said when we started this project,” Evans said. “We’re going through with the new annex, we got a lot of things so next year’s budget will have less capital. We reduced the tax rate, except for this year, for four years in a row.” Precinct 4 Commissioner Jody Rutherford expressed frustration with the state’s use of local property tax revenue. “They’re [the State] going to spend all our ad valorem taxes then tell everybody they don’t collect ad valorem taxes,” Rutherford said. “But they do so they’re liars.”
The commissioners focused their discussion on the capital outlay expenditures page, which lists items costing $5,000 or more. That section totaled $5,368,154 in planned expenditures. Sadler and the court reviewed the line items in detail, discussing causes, justifications and funding.
An additional $96,017.08 is budgeted for equipment purchases under $5,000. Those items were not discussed during the workshop.
Following the review, Evans announced that a public hearing on the proposed budget and tax rate will be held at 10 a.m. on Aug. 28 during the commissioners’ regular meeting. Members of the public will have the opportunity to provide input before the court adopts a final budget.
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