By Gloria Roemer
At last week’s virtual regular meeting of Chambers County Commissioners Court, the Court approved to set a public hearing for the 2021 County budget for August 25, 2020, which means that the 2021 budget will have been determined without budget workshops. In past years, Commissioners Court held a series of seven or eight budget workshops throughout the summer to discuss various parts of the budget. Each elected official and department head would present a “wish list” for their respective offices/departments, and the Court would determine which items were fundable. And the budget workshops were open to the public.
Aaron Thomas, assistant budget director (County Judge Jimmy Sylvia is the budget director), said that because of COVID-19, several projects budgeted for 2020 (estimated $2.1M) have been postponed because COVID-19 expenses need to be paid and were not, obviously budgeted for 2020. Thomas estimated that the County has already paid out close to $2.3M in COVID-19 expenses. Most of that cost is for salaries and overtime. “To date, we have been reimbursed over $608K from FEMA so we are hoping that we will be reimbursed for 100% of our expenses,” said Thomas. He also estimated that because COVID-19 continues to be an issue, an additional $200K will be spent on salaries, overtimes, and general expenses by the County through the end of 2020 for COVID-19 related expenses.
You can review the estimated 2021 budget on the county’s website. This is a predetermined budget. Visit www.chambers.tx.us and click on the financial transparency tab. Scroll down to 2021 proposed budget and click. Last year’s tax rate was 0.542058/100. The Court will set a date in September to determine the 2021 tax rate.