Hays County adopts $X budget and raises tax rate to 0.3999, 4-1 split on some votes

Hays County Commissioners on Tuesday adopted the county—026 budget and set a property tax rate of 0.3999 per $100 of assessed value after a public hearing and final adjustments.

The court—s final package, which commissioners described at the meeting as balanced within the constraints of state law, raises property tax revenue by $16,959,926 from the prior year and attributes $6,905,010 of that total to new property added to the tax roll. The adopted rate breaks down to 0.2544 for general maintenance and operations, 0.1029 for debt service and 0.0426 for road-and-bridge maintenance and operations.

Judge Becerra called the final hearing after staff presented minor budget corrections and a set of late requests from departments. Budget staff said adjustments included carryovers for purchase orders, small grant updates and a handful of personnel-step corrections. Vicki Dorsett, Hays County budget officer, summarized the required and discretionary changes before the court voted.

Commissioner Hammer cast the sole recorded dissent on the final budget adoption and on the tax-rate ordinance. The other four members approved the budget and rate. Commissioners said the vote followed a months-long process that balanced competing demands for public safety, roads and other county services while observing the state-imposed limits on raising revenue.

Several county residents urged the court during the final public hearing to prioritize school safety funding. The court heard emailed and in-person public comments asking the court to cover district shortfalls for school resource officers; commissioners acknowledged those pleas but said they were constrained by the budget math and state requirements.

Docket items that remained in the budget packet — including several grant amendments, purchase-order rollovers and one-time equipment purchases — were recorded by staff and will be executed under the adopted FY 2026 budgets.

The court—s formal vote to adopt the budget and tax rate concludes the county—s statutory budget cycle and sets the revenues that will fund county operations beginning Oct. 1.

At the close of the meeting the county clerk published the roll-call vote. The motions to adopt the FY 2026 budget and to set the rate at 0.3999 passed with Judge Becerra, Commissioner Smith, Commissioner Cohen and Commissioner Inglesby voting yes and Commissioner Hammer voting no.