Dallas County opens first public hearing on 2025 millage rate; no public comment

The Dallas County Board of Commissioners opened the first of three public hearings on the county's proposed 2025 millage rate on Sept. 4 and received no public comment.

Commissioner (unnamed speaker) told colleagues that recent state legislation expanding property tax exemptions has complicated the assessor's and finance offices' ability to calculate exact revenue impacts and may reduce county property-tax revenues.

The hearing, announced by the board's chair at the special-call meeting, is the first of three: the second will be held at 6 p.m. during the board's voting-session meeting the same day, and the third at 10 a.m. on Sept. 11. The chair opened and closed the public hearing after confirming no one wished to speak.

Commissioner (unnamed speaker) described implementation issues related to what the speaker identified as "House Bill 581," saying the change means an individual property's assessed value does not change from the prior year unless the owner made improvements such as an addition or a swimming pool. "If we don't move it at all, then your tax bill is exactly the same," the commissioner said, describing how the law caps increases to roughly the rate of CPI inflation (the speaker referenced a 3.5 percent cap).

The commissioner said the bill also allowed some new exemptions to be stacked, complicating staff's ability to calculate the county's actual revenue loss. Early estimates had placed the county cost at about $230,000, the commissioner said, but staff have not been able to produce a definitive figure. "Based on numbers that I'm looking at, our revenue potentially is down about 400,000 over where it was the previous year," the commissioner said.

The commissioner also warned the county depends heavily on sales tax to offset a relatively low millage rate, saying Dallas County is "the seventh lowest millage rate in the state." The speaker said sales-tax growth has plateaued and noted that without a large new retailer the county likely will not see a substantial sales-tax increase. "We rely a lot on sales tax to offset that," the commissioner said.

On reserves, the commissioner said the county's commonly cited "48" fund-balance figure reflects an auditor's snapshot taken shortly after property-tax receipts arrive, not the year-round balance. The speaker said staff estimate the county used or plans to use about $8,200,000 of fund balance for the current budget year and indicated a net use this year of roughly $1,600,000, which would leave an approximate 25 percent fund balance (about three months of reserves).

The commissioner also flagged an unawarded health-department grant of about $1,000,000 that the county may need to absorb to continue a project.

No formal action was taken on the millage rate at the Sept. 4 special call. The meeting did include a preliminary motion to approve the meeting agenda, which passed at the start of the session. The board adjourned and scheduled the next hearing and the afternoon voting session.

Votes at the meeting were limited to procedural approval of the agenda; the millage-rate hearings will continue at the two subsequent scheduled sessions.