Letter to the Editor: Taxes, Spending and Politics

By A. C. Lowe

  As Chambers County continues to move forward with a tax and spend model of government I thought it might be interesting to look at the Types of debt, currently in use. 

  The current types of debt being utilized in Chambers County are taxpayer approved bonds, Certificates of Obligation approved by the Commissioners Court and a lease agreement for the new Criminal Justice Center approved by the Commissioners Court. The current obligation created by voter approved bonds is quite low because the Court has used them sparingly since 2015. One of the stated reasons the Court chooses to use CO’s instead of bond elections which offer the voters the right (or maybe privilege) to decide spending obligations is the cost of elections. Special elections would have a cost no doubt but because we have regular elections at least every other year and sometimes more often, seems to be more of an excuse than a reason. Another reason bond elections have fallen from favor with the Court is the change in the state law prohibiting the same bond proposal from being presented for three years after the voters have turned it down.

  Bonds are specific debt obligations voted on by the registered voters in the County and must only be used for the purpose and amount stated in the bond election. Another reason bond elections have fallen from favor with the Court is the change in the state law prohibiting the same bond proposal from being presented for three years after the voters have turned it down.

  Certificates of Obligation are a legal instrument by which basically any taxing entity in the state may create taxpayer obligations with only a vote by the Court or controlling board. The CO’s were originally intended to provide taxing entities with the ability to react to catastrophic or unforeseeable equipment failures quickly when the repair or replacement would be a detriment to necessary services provided by these entities and the delay required for a bond election would be a detriment to public safety or health. CO’s have been used by the Chambers County Court almost exclusively since 2015. While these CO’s are legal they have become in Chambers County a large current operating pool used by the Court as they see fit and financed with future tax dollars. If one looks at the spread sheet supposedly detailing where the money is to be spent then reads the actual CO approved by the Court there is nothing in the approved CO to limit the use of the funds to the items detailed in the spreadsheet. I first became aware of this loop hole when I attended the Court meeting in which the most recent CO was approved. During the Court meeting the Judge repeatedly told a commissioner that the money could be moved around as needed. That statement meant little to me at the time but I have come to realize it meant a lot. If one looks at the Courts biweekly agenda one would see frequent agenda items to move money from one CO item to another and from one CO to items in another CO. Does this not make the CO’s appear to be more of a wish list of projects than a group of well planned and budgeted projects? In addition the amenities being provided by the expenditure of these funds are creating maintenance obligations for years to come that will require either future tax dollars (that means a higher tax rate) or more CO’s using future tax dollars to maintain or replace the provided amenities.

  The debt obligation for the Criminal Justice Center is considered a lease to buy obligation but it is still an accrued debt for the tax payers of Chambers County. This is also a way to keep many million dollars of tax payer debt from appearing as current debt but nonetheless it is a long term debt obligation that will be paid with future tax dollars. This is not to say a larger jail is not required in our growing county but only pointing out the debt was created without voter approval.

  To put that in a little different perspective as of July, 2025 the estimated population of Chambers County is 59,010 per Google AI. Using the Google estimate of 2.97 persons per household we can arrive at 19,869 households in Chambers County.  Using those current estimated population numbers Chambers County now has an accumulated dept of $ 7,383.00 per person. or 21,928.00 per household of current debt as of July 2025.  Bear in mind many of those persons are non-tax paying children.

  If this amount of debt is called conservative government I wonder what a liberal government’s debt would look like. One cannot make claims of reduced current tax rates while piling on future debt financed over 40 years that our children and in some cases grandchildren will pay. This might and should remind one of how the Federal Government operates and we are all aware of how that is working. Should the economy slows down(it will) and new growth no longer can be touted as the answer to runaway spending the property owners will be left to pay for this spending of our future tax dollars with little or no say from anybody except special interest. I used to call the current Republican party Republicrats, but It seems to me our current court has become Progressive Republicrats.