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Hood County court approves posted elected-salary changes, hears budget hearing and accepts clean FY2024 audit
Summary
Commissioners accepted the FY2024 audit (unmodified opinion), debated a posted 10% increase for elected-official salaries and discussed a possible 10% across-the-board employee budget; mandated statutory salary increases for the county court-at-law judge and county attorney were approved and staff reviewed fund-balance and comp-time options.
At its Aug. 12 meeting Hood County Commissioners received the FY2024 annual financial and single-audit reports and debated budget items including proposed 10% salary increases. External auditors from Pattillo, Brown & Hill delivered an unmodified (clean) audit opinion for fiscal year 2024 and reported no compliance findings for single-audit ARPA expenditures.
Why it matters: The court’s budget choices will determine staffing, comp-time payoff and whether to use fund balance to reduce next year’s tax rate or fund one-time obligations. The audit opinion is material for bond-market transparency and fiscal oversight.
Audit highlights: Auditor John Manning said the county received an unmodified opinion, reported general-fund cash (~$43M) and robust reserve levels (above statutory 33% target), and noted nearly $6M in ARPA expenditures triggered single-audit reporting; auditors found no material compliance exceptions in ARPA reporting.
Salary and budget actions: Commissioners discussed a public posting that proposed a 10% increase to elected-official salaries. After debate over whether to finalize salaries before completing the rest of the budget, the court ultimately approved setting the elected salaries consistent with the 10% posting (voice vote reported as unanimous). The court also acted on statute-driven salary increases: it increased the county court-at-law judge’s salary from $168,000 to $210,000 and mirrored that increase for the county attorney, both effective Sept. 1, 2025, citing government code obligations.
Fund-balance and comp time: Staff and the external auditor discussed options to use available fund balance to pay two remaining Crescent Bypass payments or to pay down accrued comp-time liability before Sept. 1 to take advantage of tax-treatment changes. Auditors advised the court how to show planned use of fund balance in the budget but cautioned against depleting reserves. Commissioners asked for further work on budget matrices and recommended returning to finalize decisions at a September meeting.
What’s next: County staff will refine the salary matrix, fund-balance allocations and comp-time payoff options and present updated budget language at a subsequent court meeting in September; the audit firm will make final deliverables available for public review.
