Walker County revises purchasing policy to match state cap increase from Senate Bill 1173

Walker County Commissioners Court on Aug. 25 approved revisions to the county's purchasing policy to align local thresholds with changes enacted by the Texas Legislature under Senate Bill 1173. Staff told the court the legislature raised the county informal-solicitation threshold from $50,000 to $100,000 and asked the court to revise local policy accordingly.

County staff provided the commissioners with a redlined purchasing manual showing proposed text changes and noted typographical errors on pages 15, 22 and 24 that staff said would be corrected to reflect the $100,000 threshold. The court discussed how the informal-bid lower and upper limits interact with county competitive-pricing requirements and confirmed that formal solicitations will still be required above the higher threshold.

During discussion, commissioners and staff reviewed the dollar bands that trigger informal bids and Commissioner's Court review. Staff explained that any purchases above the county'established competitive-pricing floor would continue to require documentation and, where applicable, court approval. Commissioners moved to amend the purchasing policy to reflect the state'level increase to $100,000 and to adjust cross-referenced thresholds in the policy manual; the motion passed by majority vote.

Court members asked staff to continue reviewing the manual for additional edits and to return with any remaining updates. The adopted change updates local procurement thresholds to match the new state allowance; staff said other procurement practices (competitive pricing and formal solicitation procedures) remain in force as described in the revised manual.