Pampa approves renewed agreement with Grey County for tax assessment; city share to rise to about $19,000

The Pampa City Commission approved an agreement renewing Grey County’s role in providing tax assessment and collection services for the city, a process staff said the city last contracted for in 2008.

Theresa Daniels and Shane Stokes explained that the county performs technical tasks such as running no-new-revenue calculations and handling appraisal values from the appraisal district. Stokes noted the agreement had not been amended since February 2008 and that the county’s request for the city’s portion of the cost had increased from about $7,000 annually in 2008 to roughly $19,000 in the current year. "Their request this year is for substantial increases to about $19,000 per for the city's portion of it," Stokes said, and staff said the cost reflects the amount necessary to cover the service.

Staff said the software and technical capacity needed to run these tax calculations in-house would likely cost more than paying the county, making the county arrangement cost-effective despite the increase. The commission voted to approve the agreement; the motion carried by voice vote with no recorded opposition in the transcript.

Why it matters: The agreement covers specialized tax-assessment functions that are technical and time-consuming. Renewing the county agreement preserves the city’s ability to calculate tax rates and comply with state truth-in-taxation requirements without incurring higher implementation costs to replicate the service internally.

Details: Staff indicated this will be presented annually going forward and that the city expects modest annual increases to cover the county’s cost of service. The city will continue to publish disbursements and reconciliations on its website after each month’s reconciliation is complete.