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Ellis County budget presentation shows new asks exceed projected revenue; officials discuss COLA scenarios
Summary
County staff presented a draft FY2026 budget showing departmental requests outpacing estimated new revenue, prompting discussion of salary increases, reclassifications, vehicle requests, and contingency planning.
Ellis County presented a working draft of the fiscal year 2026 general fund budget to the Commissioners Court, describing a set of department requests and assumptions that currently exceed the county's projected new revenue.
Ryan (staff presenter) told the court the packet showed a preliminary total of roughly $121,000,000 in general-fund requests as presented in the rack-and-stack, a figure he said would increase once outstanding items (auditor's office directive from district judges and juvenile board recommendations) are included. Staff highlighted new asks totaling about $15.7 million in the packet and estimated approximately $9.7 million in new revenue based on the appraisal district's latest values, with roughly $8.4 million available to the general fund if the tax rate remains flat.
The presentation detailed several major line items and assumptions: 36 requested new positions with a base-salary total of about $2.7 million and a fully burdened cost near $3.84 million; 24 requested new vehicles; an approximately $1 million increase to a non-departmental contingency earmarked for death-penalty cases (bringing that contingency to about $2 million); an interfund-transfer expectation that would add roughly $3 million to juvenile funding; and a bookkeeping entry proposing an additional $5.2 million to accelerate debt retirement so a bond could be paid off by August 2026.
On insurance and benefits, staff already factored the HR recommendation that the county absorb the FY2026 health-plan renewal — 3.7% for medical and 10% for dental — so employee premiums would not increase. Staff also proposed switching the county flexible spending account from HealthEquity to WEX to address employee-service complaints; that vendor change was approved separately on the agenda.
Staff discussed inflation and labor-market benchmarks as they relate to cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). Ryan cited Bureau of Labor Statistics and local wage data showing a year-over-year Dallas–Fort Worth area wage increase of 4.5% as of March 2025, while the local CPI reading for the area was 0.6% year-over-year. He offered three reference points for commissioners to consider when weighing COLA decisions: 0.6% (to preserve purchasing power per CPI), 2.5% (a midpoint), and 4.5% (to stay competitive with local labor-market wage growth).
No budget decisions were made at the meeting; staff said they will refine numbers and return periodic updates to the court as appraisal-district values are finalized and juvenile or district-court directives are received. Ryan said the county must file a proposed budget by Aug. 11 (the timeline discussed) and indicated he will present cost scenarios for different COLA choices at future updates.
Ending: Commissioners heard the presentation but took no formal action; staff and elected officials will continue to refine requests and revenue estimates ahead of formal budget filing and adoption.
