Walker County Commissioners Court on Aug. 11 filed a proposed budget for fiscal 2025–26, set public hearings on the proposed tax rate for Aug. 25, and approved a county-funded recruitment and retention package for the Emergency Medical Services department.

The court set a proposed operations rate and debt rate for notice purposes and scheduled the budget hearing for Aug. 25 at 9 a.m. and the tax-rate hearing for Aug. 25 at 9:05 a.m. The courthouse clerk will publish the required notices and post the materials online.

Why it matters: the court’s action locks in the county’s legal notification steps required under state law for taxing entities and directs limited new resources to short-term staffing pressures in EMS while seeding longer-term planning efforts.

At the meeting the county auditor and administrative staff presented certified values from the appraisal district and tax-rate worksheets. The presentation showed new taxable growth of $170,033,831 and the county’s calculated ‘‘no new revenue’’ rate at 0.4371 and a debt rate at 0.0184, which together produce a voter-approval threshold of 0.4887 per $100 of assessed value. During the court’s vote, commissioners included proposed rates in the public-notice package; the forms published will reflect the court’s chosen notice rates and the scheduled hearings.

On personnel, the court approved an alternate use of $56,016 that had been budgeted for adding three paramedic positions and instead allocated those funds to a targeted paramedic retention and recruitment plan. The plan creates two pay tiers for paramedics: a base paramedic grade and a paramedic II grade; up to seven positions may be paid at the higher tier as a recruitment tool. County staff said the measure uses money already budgeted and does not increase the overall proposed budget total.

“We have 6 vacant paramedic positions,” EMS Chief Rachel (first name used in meeting) explained during the workshop discussion, summarizing the staffing strain and urging a practical retention step rather than waiting to add more positions. The court’s motion instructed administration to implement a two-tier structure and to return with job descriptions and criteria distinguishing paramedic I and II.

Separately, the court directed the auditor to place $100,000 into planning-and-development for engineering/recruitment support and to create a separate long-range planning fund for $213,128 of unallocated revenue from the certified values. The funds are earmarked to support future capital planning, engineering recruitment or contracted technical assistance, and a future salary/compensation study.

Decisions vs. discussion: the court formally voted to (1) file the proposed budget with the county clerk as amended, (2) schedule public hearings on Aug. 25 for the proposed budget and proposed tax rate, and (3) reallocate the $56,016 to the EMS recruitment/retention plan and earmark the long-range planning and planning/engineering funds. Several commissioners and staff emphasized the need for a follow-up, countywide compensation study and for administrative work to finalize the paramedic job-grade criteria before implementation.

Next steps: staff will publish the statutorily required notices, post the budget materials, implement the temporary EMS pay-tier plan under the guidance of the EMS chief and HR, and return to commissioners if further budget amendments are needed after TxDOT or other external developments affect county revenues or obligations.

Ending: The county will hold the public budget hearing Aug. 25 at 9 a.m. and the tax-rate hearing at 9:05 a.m. at the Walker County Courthouse; the court invited residents to review the proposed budget packet on the county website and to comment at the hearings.