ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — Ector County Judge Fawcett and County Commissioners spent over 75 days on the 2023-2024 County Budget, but during Tuesday's meeting, there was lots of back and forth on whether the budget should be passed.
With lots of passion coming from Judge Fawcett, he was in favor of passing it Tuesday.
"I’m proud of this budget and with that I’ll make a motion on our own budget and I’ll entertain the second," said Judge Fawcett during the Commissioner's Court.
"This has been months of work so I was very passionate because I felt strongly that this was a good product I felt strongly that the position we added were gonna either save the county money or save taxpayers time," Judge Fawcett told NewsWest 9. "Overall the taxpayers are gonna benefit from the new positions, the new materials or the new equipment we are funding."
Judge Fawcett was met with Commissioners opposing him at first stating, "the county can't afford it", and others concerned about adding several more county employees to the payroll.
"We can drop the tax rate some and still be just fine," said Commissioner Gardner during Court.
"I'm more worried about you’re adding 30 new employees this year," said Commissioner Simmons during Court.
Following lots of deliberation, the budget was approved.
Then Commissioners discussed the tax rate, with Judge Fawcett in favor of leaving the tax rate the same at $0.35 saying this is "the perfect year to leave the tax rate alone."
"This means that Ector County homeowners are actually going to be paying less taxes this year," Judge Fawcett said. "As you could tell I was very passionate about leaving our tax rate alone. And a huge reason for doing that was almost 50% of the increase in the tax revenue this year is oil and gas and so that’s not on the backs of homeowners. In fact, the average home in Ector County, as far as their taxable value, went down $17,000 according to the appraisal district."
Judge Fawcett also said providing an efficient effective government through this budget, while also leaving the tax rate alone at a time when the only increase in revenue comes from oil, gas, railroads and other side accounts, is a smart move.
The Court voted 3-2 to approve the 2023-2024 County Budget and 3-2 to keep the County tax rate at $0.35.