Court asks auditor to model constable fee increases; $400,000 planning delta agreed

Commissioners asked staff to model potential revenue from proposed increases to constable service fees during the Aug. 14 budget workshop. A presenter from the constable office laid out two proposals: one staff-labeled option projected roughly a 23% increase in the captured activity and a second option projected up to a 55% increase for that activity, depending on which fees and activity were included.

The court discussed whether the increases would represent new net revenue and whether the public impact would be acceptable. The presiding judge observed that “a fee is a tax,” a framing used while commissioners weighed the equity of fee increases. Commissioners sought a single planning number for the auditor to use; after staff plugged numbers into the spreadsheet the court agreed on using $400,000 as a planning delta for modeling purposes and asked the auditor to factor that into the tax‑rate scenarios.

Auditor staff cautioned that the presented table represented approximately 75% of overall constable activity and that full-year totals would differ; commissioners asked staff to return with modeled net revenue and any operational impacts. No change in fee rates was adopted at the workshop; the request was for the auditor to incorporate the $400,000 assumption in future budget scenarios.