Kaufman County approves new stormwater management fees to recover program costs

Kaufman County Commissioners Court on a regular April meeting approved a new schedule of fees for the county’s stormwater management program to recover county costs tied to permitting and program administration.

County staff presented the fee schedule and said the amounts were calculated from comparable fees in neighboring counties and the state permitting costs used by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. “We talked about this at the workshop last week, and I said in order to run that program, we needed to recover some of the county’s costs,” Monique, a county staff member, told the court.

The new schedule is intended to reimburse staff time and other county expenses tied to stormwater reviews and permitting; staff said the fees were itemized rather than rolled into a single charge so the county could track discrete cost elements. Monique said staff factored comparable counties’ fees and TCEQ permitting costs into the calculation and that fees were set “not to exceed” applicable permitting levels mentioned in state guidance.

Commissioners also discussed internal accounting for the new revenue. The court directed staff to coordinate with the auditor to create a separate line item so stormwater fee revenue and expenses can be tracked. “I need to get with Brandy in the auditor’s office so we can create that line item for it to go into so that we can track that,” Monique said.

A motion to approve the fee schedule was made and seconded; the court approved the fees by voice vote. The motion carried, and the court asked staff to implement the schedule and set up the tracking line item with the auditor.

Why this matters: County staff said the program currently requires staff time that is not recovered under the existing structure. Commissioners framed the fee change as a means to avoid subsidizing workload with general funds and to ensure program costs are transparent in county accounting.

Implementation next steps include adding the new revenue line item in the county budget and operationalizing the fee schedule in the stormwater permitting process. The court did not specify an effective date in the meeting record; staff indicated they would be ready to implement once the accounting line item is set up.