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Coryell County commissioners table parts of FY2026 budget after line-item review
Summary
After a detailed, line-item review of the proposed FY2026 budget, the Coryell County Commissioners Court agreed to table agenda items 6–8 to allow staff to make adjustments. Commissioners discussed step raises, health-insurance costs and modest cuts that yield only a small change in the working tax rate.
Coryell County’s Commissioners Court continued its review of the proposed fiscal 2026 budget, debating step raises, rising health-insurance costs and a series of small line-item cuts before voting to table portions of the budget for follow-up adjustments.
County Judge opened discussion by noting that much of the year-over-year increase reflects health-insurance hikes and previously adopted step raises for county employees. The judge said staff had produced an amended proposed budget that includes those costs and explained that some departmental increases are tied to employees reaching longevity milestones.
Members and members of the public pressed for transparency about elected officials’ hours and compensation; a resident asked how many hours commissioners work and said residents could not “afford it again” if tax increases repeat. Commissioners and staff replied that elected officials do not have set hourly schedules, described on-call duties and cited examples of workload such as storm responses, RFP reviews and interagency coordination.
Court members then worked through dozens of line items—office supplies, miscellaneous funds, travel, jail-board payments and courthouse maintenance—proposing targeted reductions (for example, $500 cuts in miscellaneous or office-supplies lines in several offices and a $5,000 reduction in litigation). Staff flagged items with question marks where figures were uncertain and explained that some items (like postage and certain statutory costs) are not optional.
After those exchanges, Commissioner Weddell moved to table agenda items 6, 7 and 8 so staff could incorporate the suggested adjustments; Commissioner Basham seconded. The motion passed on a voice vote. Budget staff told the court that the changes made so far would reduce the tax rate by about one-quarter of a cent and that the working tax rate supporting the amended proposed budget will remain at 0.4752 for planning purposes.
The court recessed to allow staff to make the changes and planned to revisit the tabled items later in the meeting.
