Bell County is growing, but are our services keeping pace?

Send us a text

Commissioner Louie Minor provides a comprehensive look at Bell County's budget planning process and critical decisions affecting taxpayer dollars. He examines major capital projects, emergency services funding, and potential solutions for rising healthcare costs through a proposed hospital district.

• Overview of upcoming Commissioner's Court meetings and agenda items including budget discussions
• Details on the $101 million jail expansion adding 600 beds while facing 52% increase in medical costs
• Examination of the new $9.8 million Killeen Annex opening fall 2026 and plans for a new Temple Annex
• Discussion of Bell County's rapid growth to over 404,000 residents and the strain on county services
• Analysis of the current tax rate and budget requests totaling over $208 million for personnel, equipment, and projects
• Explanation of the disabled veteran tax exemption impact on county revenue
• Proposal for creating a county hospital district to handle indigent healthcare and jail medical costs
• Review of Emergency Service Districts as a solution for rural areas needing better fire and ambulance coverage

Support the show

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
welcome.
You are listening to the louisminor show.
I'm your host, bell county,commissioner, louis minor.
Today is july 5th, 2025.
Welcome back.
Happy, belated fourth of july.
And uh, you know we've beenaway for a little bit, been busy
with budget and just everythinggoing on.

(00:23):
You know, like I said manytimes, that I am doing all this
all by myself.
I do have some interns thissummer so they're helping out
and helping me catch up.
So but, uh, yeah, we are back,got a lot to catch up on and I
will close out the show with abudget town hall.

(00:43):
That I did not too long agoLast week I believe with a bunch
of residents at Texas A&M,central Texas.
But we do have a budget meeting, I'm sorry, a commissioner's
court meeting on Monday, july7th.

(01:03):
So let's get to the agenda realquick for that meeting.
We have invocation, pledge ofallegiance, consent agenda items
.
Uh.
Regular minutes of uh, monday,july 7th.
No, that cannot be correctbecause we don't have those
minutes yet.

(01:25):
Then we have approval of theminutes of June 16th 2025.
Budget, personnel amendments,claims, accounts, payable,
payroll restitution and jury pay.
Then we have for consent agendaconsider authorizing change
order number one to the originalagreement dated january 2nd

(01:48):
2025 with target solutions toadd new insulation, drywall and
laminated wall panels in theassembly hall at an additional
cost of $153,326.08, withappropriate budget amendment.
Ratify the submission of theFY25 Help America Vote Act HAVA

(02:16):
election security grantapplication in the amount of
$52,000 with a funding match inthe amount of $10,400 for
election security measures tothe State of Texas Office of
Secretary of State, designatingBell County Judge as the
authorized official for thegrant.
Then consider approval to payinvoice milestone 6 from the
City of Temple for the first cutover go live niche RMS at a

(02:43):
budget amount of $64,585.42 forthe Constable and Sheriff's
Record Management System.
Then we have a presentation,proclamations and awards.
Presentation and proclamationby Melissa N Benoli, executive

(03:04):
Director of part of CentralTexas Alliance, on July 26,.
Two lot one block subdivisionlocated in Precinct 2.
Our next item would considerand approve the final plat of

(03:35):
Hackberry Ranchettes being52.807 acres 52.807 acres 10 lot
2 block subdivision located inPrecinct 2.
Item C consider and approve aminor plat of Salado, 1.074

(03:57):
corner, being a 1.074 acre.
1 lot one block subdivisionlocated in precinct two.
Item D consider and approve afinal plat of Stennett Mills
Estates being Stennett MillsEstate, phase two being a 28.19

(04:26):
acre 36 lot five blocksubdivision located in Precinct
2.
Then item E consider andapprove the final plat of Casa
de Rudez being a .7904 acre 1lot 1 block subdivision located
in Precinct 3.
And finally, for Engineer, wehave item F consider and approve
final plat of Watley Acres,replat number 1, being a 35.221

(04:49):
acre 14 lot 1 block subdivisionlocated in Precinct
1.
Now Regular Agenda Items.
Consider and approve theretirement of Ron Luxinger,
secretary on the Bell CountyYouth Fair Executive Board.
Consider and appoint LindseyStrait to the Bell County Youth
Executive Board.

(05:09):
Item C consider approval of apetition for voluntary
annexation for a portion of BobWhite Road into the City of
Temple from Bell County, as theowner of the adjacent 4.8607
acres of the right-of-way to the702.0564-acre track is also

(05:34):
petitioning the City Council totake appropriate action to annex
the 4.8607 acres ofright-of-way.
Oh, that was alot.
Item D consider authorizing thecounty judge to enter into a
contract with Texas Customs forthe installation of security

(05:56):
screens at the Loop Jail Towerfor a cost not to exceed $35,529
.
To exceed $35,529.
Item E consider authorizing thecounty judge to execute an
interlocal agreement betweenBell County and the City of
Harker Heights for theregulation of subdivisions in

(06:18):
the extraterritorialjurisdiction of Harker Heights.
Item F consider authorizing thecounty judge to execute an
interlocal agreement betweenBell County and City of Rogers
for regulation of subdivisionand the extraterritorial
jurisdiction in the City ofRogers.
Item G Consider the appointmentof Bell County Commissioner

(06:39):
Bobby Woodson as representativeto serve on the K-Tempo TAC
Board.
Item H consider the appointmentof Amanda Organ, director of
the Salado Chamber of Commerce,to serve as the Development
District of Central Texas Board.

(07:00):
Item I consider establishing atemporary regulatory
construction speed limit onState Highway 195 in the
unincorporated portion from 75miles per hour to 60 miles per
hour for the duration of theroad improvement project by the
Texas Department ofTransportation, pursuant to

(07:22):
Texas Code 545.355.
Item J consider approval tocancel the July 21st 2025
Commissioner's Court meeting andworkshop and reschedule the
meeting to July 28th 2025.
K consider authorizing the ITdepartment to purchase security

(07:47):
cameras, software, license,camera mounts, network cables
and SD cards from variousvendors for the Temple Annex at
an estimated cost of $9,915,with associated budget
amendment.
Then we have item L Closedsession pursuant to chapter
551.087 of the Texas governmentcode to discuss or deliberate

(08:14):
regarding commercial orfinancial information that the
governing body has received froma business prospect that the
government body seeks to havebusiness prospect that the
government body seeks to havelocate, stay or expand in or
near the territory of thegovernmental body and with which
the governmental body isconducting economic development

(08:36):
negotiations in order todeliberate the offer of a
financial or other incentives toa business project.
And I believe that is it forour regular agenda.
Let's go to our workshop agenda.
Now we have, let's see reportsand updates from various county

(09:01):
offices and departments capitalimprovement projects.
Update on jail expansion andtemporary jail facilities.
Clean annex FY 2025 CIPplan.
Then we have submissionsdiscuss application to the FY

(09:21):
26-27 solid waste grant.
Next item is discuss allowingJP4, place to temporary hire a
district a temporary hire adeputy clerk.
Then we have discuss schoolresource officer contract

(09:44):
renewal for Academy ISD.
Next item discuss entering intoan interlocal agreement with
the City of Belton for documentstorage at Bell County Archives
and review associated fees.
Next item is discuss movingcountywide phone system from
Mitel to Cloud Solutions RingCentral.

(10:05):
Next item is discuss and reviewthe petition and request for
the call for a general electionrelating to the Bell County
Emergency Service, district no 3.
Next, discuss request from theBell County Emergency Service,
district No.1 relating to officespace for the Bell County

(10:26):
Emergency Service DistrictNumber 1.
Relating to office space forthe Bell County Emergency
Service District Number 1.
Firemarshal.
And then we have FY26 budgetdiscussion and that's all in the
morning.
I don't know if we're going toget to all that in the morning.
Know if we're going to get toall that in the morning.

(10:47):
Next item is in the afternoon,budget planning, implementation,
budget follow-up hearing anddepartmental update workshops at
specifically listed times, at 9am and 1.30 pm in the Bell
County Commissioner's Court.
July 14th, 9 am to 12, and 1.30to 5, budget discussions.

(11:08):
And that is all of our meetings.
We do have some meetings thatthe commissioners may or may not
attend.
We had July 4th, yesterday.
Everyone attended that one.
July 17th we have the Power ofUs, presented by Bell County

(11:29):
Juvenile Services at SITCOG.
July 21st through 24th we havethe North and East County Judge
and Commissioners AssociationConvention Conference.
That's in Waco.
Then July 30th we hadChildren's Advocacy Center.
I don't know what they're doingthere.
But that is everything on theagenda for this coming Monday.

(11:55):
So thankyou.
Next, like I told you earlier,I did a budget town hall, kind
of explained to the people.
I also, um, posted it, uh, dida Facebook live event with it,
so I was able to get informationout there so people can hear

(12:16):
and understand and kind ofunderstand what the process is
that we go through and decisionswe're making.
So I want to play that for you.
Hope you enjoy it and we willsee you.
Maybe next week.
I am going to the NationalAssociation of Counties annual

(12:38):
conference that's going to be inPhiladelphia.
I'll be leaving on Thursdayyeah, thursday the 10th, and I
should get back by the 14th or15th, but I'll definitely want
to do some interviews while I'mthere and talk to some people
and hopefully be able to sharethose with you whenever I get

(13:00):
back.
So, enjoy the Budget Town Halland we will see you next week.
Yeah, it's good right now.
It's good enough.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
All right.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
Well, we'll go ahead and get started and as people
trickle in, they'll be able tosettle down and settle in.
Welcome.
My name is Louie Miner, bellCounty Commissioner for Precinct
4, and I want to thank you fortaking time out of your day to
come here and hear about thebudget that we're currently
working on at Bell County.

(13:49):
That's going to affect yourproperty taxes here and I need
input from you to see what isimportant to you and what you
think is not important as wemake decisions on our property
taxes.
First, I want to thank TexasA&M, central Texas, for allowing

(14:11):
us to use this space, thisbeautiful space.
They've always been helpfulwith the county and any requests
that I have.
So thank you, texas A&M.
Thank you, texas A&M, you know.
So I wanted to start just giveyou a little update on this is
our mission statement for thecounty.

(14:32):
I also want to take a momentbefore we get too far into it is
.
I want to thank my two internsfrom University of Texas, elliot
and Lily.
Lily put all this stufftogether, slides working with me
, so thank you, lily, for allthis.
So this is our missionstatement.

(14:53):
The government of Bell County,texas, exists to promote and
sustain a superior quality oflife in Central Texas.
In partnership with communitiesand citizens, we pledge to
deliver cost-effective servicesin a personal, responsive and
innovative manner.
Now, it's that innovativemanner is the thing that I like

(15:16):
to focus on, because sometimeswe forget about that.
This is Bell County and this isthe precinct maps for the
county commissioners In BellCounty.
Well, in every county in Texas,you only have four county
commissioners, regardless of thesize of the county, and one
county judge, and that makes upyour commissioner's court.

(15:38):
So these are the boundaries.
If you want to know who yourcommissioner is, my name is
Louie Miner.
I'm Commissioner 4.
And then you can see theboundaries for all the other
ones.
This is your commissioner'scourt.
Right here We've got CountyJudge David Blackburn.
Precinct 1.
County Commissioner RussellSnyder.

(15:58):
Precinct 2 County CommissionerBobby Woodson.
Commissioner 3 Greg Reynolds.
So these are the people thatwill be making decisions on your
county tax rate and priorities.
That we're going to be, and youonly need three votes to make
something happen at the countylevel.
So just FYI, so you know thatthe magic number is three.

(16:23):
So these are some of thehighlights that we're going to
go over.
You'll see these same things onthe agenda that I gave to you.
What I want to do is just dothis presentation it's going to
be about 30 minutes for thispart and then I want to hear
from you questions that youmight have or any ideas that you

(16:46):
might have as well of what wecan do at the county to make
Bell County better.
So we'll be going over thecounty jail, the Killeen Annex
and Temple Annex, the populationin Bell County, where we're
starting with our tax rate, thebudget that we're currently
working on, and then all thebudget requests that we got in

(17:09):
for this year, so you can seedecisions that we have to make
and where we've got to cut andwhere we're going to spend.
And then we'll talk about thedisabled veteran surviving
spouse tax exemption, some ofthe other things that were
mandated by law to pay for, andthen I wanted to end it talking

(17:30):
about a county hospital districtand emergency service districts
in the county.
Does anyone have any questions?
Feel free.
I want this to be interactive.
If you have any questions, youcan stop and ask them at that
time.
So this is the Killeen Annex.
We did a groundbreaking lastweek.

(17:51):
A lot of people showed up there.
Thank you for those that came.
It's going to open in fall of26.
So the timeline that I've seensays September.
So that's when we're kind oflooking to be opening the doors
there.
So it's going to be about a14-month turnaround.
The project award costs$9,853,590 that the county is

(18:17):
investing in downtown Killeen.
So why is that important?
I think it's part of thecomprehensive plan.
I was on the comprehensive plancommittee whenever it was
started, so we did historicallook and government investment.
A government node has alwaysbeen in downtown, so it's good

(18:38):
that Bell County is the onestarting starting this
consolidation there.
It's gonna be over 28,000square feet and that'll move
everything, just almosteverything, off of Priest Drive
onto Gray Street.
Right now the only thing that'sreally gonna stay on Priest
Drive is the adult probation.

(19:00):
Everything else is gonna move.
The Help Center will be theretoo.
The Help Center is stayingwhere it's at Temple Annex.
So I have a lot of questionmarks here on the Temple Annex.
I'm not working on this, but wecurrently have a renovated

(19:21):
Temple Annex.
Now it's an older building, butwe did renovations on it a
couple of years ago.
The city of Temple wants it.
I don't know why.
I'm sure other people will doso.
What the city of Temple offeredto do is to find us a new
location and to give us somemoney to build a new temple
annex.
So I think it's around $4, fivemillion.

(19:44):
Don't hold me to that.
I don't know exactly how muchit's going to cost that they're
giving us, but it's supposed tobe cost neutral.
It's not going to cost usanything because City Temple is
supposed to cover all thesecosts.
There might be some costs hereand there that the county will
have to absorb, but we're goingto get a new annex out of it.

(20:06):
So currently, right now, theannex is on central.
I think it's on centraldowntown, off central, uh, in
temple, yeah, uh, there, the.
The proposed location is goingto be off of mlk, so you know
where the mlk fairgrounds is intemple.
It's going to be right rightacross the street from that.
So, like I said, I don't know alot about that.

(20:30):
I do know they're working onplans for it.
I do know that it will probablybe going out to bid the end of
this year, beginning of nextyear, and they'll be starting
construction.
So it is in the works.
Yes, ma'am, we're getting there.
We're getting there.

(20:50):
We're getting there.
Yeah, we're getting there.
So that's the Temple Annex, newKilleen Annex, new Temple Annex
I think it's both.
Both are great things.
Precinct 2, salado.
They got a new annex a coupleof years ago, and so everything

(21:11):
in the county, at least for theannexes, will be new for our
residents.
Yes, ma'am, yes, they aremoving the location, the current
annex where Temple is at.
We're going to give that to thecity of Temple.
What they're doing with that, Idon't know, but they're going

(21:35):
to build the county a new annexoff of MLK Street.
How long has it been there?
Oh, decades, decades.
I don't know exactly how longthe Temple annex has been there,
but it's been there for a longtime.
Yeah, so this is the populationin Bell County.

(21:56):
Every 10 years we have to dothe census, and in 2020, bell
County's population was waslittle over 370,000.
In 2025, it's over 404,000 now.
So that's according to my maththat I did prior to this meeting
.
That's over 34,000 residents toBell County in just under five

(22:23):
years.
So that's a lot of peoplemoving here, a lot of people
needing water, electricity,housing, jobs.
So those are the things that welook at and what we try to think
about.
Try to do some long-termplanning.
Oddly enough.
The county doesn't have along-term plan.
We don't have long-term plans,like cities do Cities by law,

(22:44):
they're required to have acomprehensive plan for every 10
years.
The county does not.
We could, we could, but that'ssomething that we would have to
make a decision on and vote onand at least get three votes to
do it.
So this is did I skip the jail?

(23:06):
Okay, here we go, here we go.
I'm sorry you, you're, you'reright, I because, yeah, we got a
little bit too.
Okay, now we, we went back tothere.
So the jail expansion the jailexpansion is behind schedule.
It was supposed to be openalready, but it's's not.
It's going to happen.
Schedules move here and there,but I think we're a little bit

(23:30):
further behind than what we wereanticipating, but it is what it
is.
So, for our budget that we'recurrently working on, now we
authorized 66 new jail positionsand that was to fully staff the
new jail.
The new jail expansion isalmost 600 new beds coming

(23:57):
online.
Currently we're at around 1200beds, so we'll have a total of
1,902 beds for the jail wheneverit opens.
Now you're probably thinkingthe same thing I thought
whenever I voted on this budget.
We don't have 1,912 inmatesCurrently we only have 1,200

(24:23):
inmates in the jail roughly.
So what is all that excesscapacity is going to go for?
That's why I voted against thisbudget, the current budget that
we're working on.
The commissioner's court.
They want to turn our jail intoa private prison and lease out

(24:44):
jail space.
Now that decision was made, wehave to work.
I want to make sure ouremployees are successful and
safe.
So I want to make sure thatthey have the tools that they
need to be safe and do their job.
So the decision was made thatthis is what we're going to do.
So I have to support ouremployees now.

(25:05):
So, just taking that for whatit's worth, the jail medical
costs that has exploded.
So our last company that we hadwork for the county that did
jail medical turnkey they quiton us.
They said our contract does notaccount for this, that they I

(25:31):
guess they underbid.
So they canceled their contract.
We had to go out for a newcontract.
That new contract came in at$8,752,000.
A 52% increase from the prioryear when turnkey was in charge.
That's a lot of money thatwasn't accounted for in the

(25:53):
budget.
We had to go into fund reservesto cover that, but it's not
going to be covered under fundreserves.
This year they're going to goto the taxpayers to cover that
cost.
Yes, sir no it goes up everyyear.

(26:13):
Yeah, it goes up every year.
We have a five-year contractwith them, so every year it'll
go up.
And it'll go up as ourpopulation grows in the jail,
because the population isn'tgoing to go to 1900 overnight,
you know there there'sbenchmarks that you know.
After 1400 inmates, 1500inmates, that contract will grow

(26:38):
.
Melissa, you had a question.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
I think there's a lot of comments about health and
safety.
I think that's a big part ofthe humanity of marijuana, but I
think that most of the peoplewho are in these groups are

(27:14):
probably not, actually we could.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
And the reason why I say that is because there are
some people that get arrestedthat have prior charges of other
things that will not make themeligible for a PR bond.
They should be able to get acommercial bond, but not a PR
bond, a personal recognizancebond, one that the county would
do.
So, yes, they could be arrestedand charged and being held in

(27:46):
Bell County Jail for simplemarijuana possession.
To my understanding, I don'tthink the city of Kalina is
arresting people for simplemarijuana possession.
I know I don't think the cityof kalina is arresting people
for simple marijuana possession.
I know there's some here andthere, but I I kind of track it
a little bit, but I haven't seena whole lot of arrest.
No, they don't want to holdanyone in jail.

(28:26):
They're trying to get peopleout of jail as quickly as
possible.
That's based off of our currentpopulation of about 1,300.
It should open up this summer.

(28:46):
I do have that figure based offof it, but I don't have it in
the slide, but I could get it toyou of what it would be based

(29:11):
off of the population of thejail.
So okay, randy, how muchrevenue are the judges going to
make?
We don't know.
We don't have any contracts inplace.
I do know the judge said he'stalked to other counties that

(29:31):
are eager.
He mentioned they mentioned$100 a day, $110 a day.
I haven't seen anything likethat.
The state average is $75 a day.
I really don't see counties inTexas wanting to pay Bell County
a premium because we have a newjail.
You know I don't see it.
Harris County is mentionedHarris County, the largest jail

(29:57):
in the county, obviously becauseit's the largest county in the
state.
They're shipping inmates to ornot inmates.
They're shipping people thatare in jail Harris County jail,
I think, mississippi but they'reonly paying $75 a day.
Like I said, I don't know ifthey're going to do it in Bell

(30:21):
County for over $100.
So the total cost of our jailexpansion is $101 million.
Most of that was ARPA money.
$63 million of that was ARPAmoney.
$63 million of that was ARPAmoney, american Rescue Plan

(30:42):
money.
You know a lot of counties andcities did some innovative
things with ARPA money, but notBell County.
Bell County decided to put allthat in a jail and I went to a
conference of urban countiesmeeting not too long ago where
the director for the TexasDepartment of Criminal Justice
that's in charge of all of ourstate prisons, said that is the

(31:04):
last thing county should bedoing is looking at building a
jail, because there's so manyother options out there to do
before.
That should be an option.
The last resort is to build ajail, but obviously I don't
think we consulted with him.
Scott, I don't know that answer.

(31:41):
It might have been given at onepoint in time during that
process.
This decision was made waybefore I got into office to
office.
But I mean, you know we're at400,000 now and we're at 1,200,

(32:05):
1,300 inmates.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
So I guess we kind of do the math on something like
that, ms.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Sander, I don't have that, I can get it for you.
So all these questions thatthey're asking, let's make notes
of it and we'll have to getresponses for those Brandy.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Have they talked about?
What is the estimated operatingcost of this?

Speaker 1 (32:33):
jail space.
No, I mean it's in the millions.
I can tell you that I mean theno.
No, I don't think so.
They're expecting a profit,quote-unquote profit, by leasing
out jail space.

(32:53):
They're forecasting it to coverour expenses.
But one lawsuit will get rid ofany type of profits.
One wrongful death suit,because they're going to sue the
county that that inmate camefrom and they're going to sue
Bell County and they're going tosue the sheriff and they're
going to sue the commissioner's.
They're going to sue thesheriff and sue the

(33:14):
commissioner's court and mostlikely, they'll probably settle.
So it will cost money, melissa.
It costs $7,000.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
What are we?

Speaker 1 (33:39):
paying for the, for the medical uh.
I mean they're consideredindigent so we're required by
law to provide medical.
Uh.
I mean they're getting basic.
If there's anythinglife-threatening, obviously we
send them to Scott and White.
We got to send a deputy therewith them and so any type of
treatment like that.
If they're on dialysis whenthey come to us we have to get

(34:03):
that.
If they're on HIV medication,we got to give them that Cancer
treatment.
We got to do all that stuff.
If they come to us like that, Ican't tell you on circumstances
like that, the county does whatit can to send them home
because they don't want to coverthat cost.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
If you come in and you have a physical insurance,
are we able to bill theinsurance for the person who's
father has?

Speaker 1 (34:37):
a birth certificate?
No, because they're consideredindigent when they come.
I don't think there's amechanism for us to do that.
It might be something that wecould look at with the law.
It might be something that wecould look at with the law, but

(35:24):
I think, as of right now, I'mnot aware of any circumstances
where we recover costs frompeople that have medical
insurance.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
I have an idea for jail medical costs and we'll
cover it here in a little bit,okay.
So any other questions on thejail before we move on?
Okay, because I know that'simportant, and once we do open
it up, I want to let you knowthat we will do an open house.
So if you want to come see what$101 million looks like, I'm

(36:01):
pretty sure that we're going toput it out in the paper and all
that stuff.
All right, here's our pipeline.
Okay, so this is what we'reworking with now.
This is our budget that we have,now that we adopted your tax
rate, a combined tax rate of.3445 cents per $100 valuation.

(36:23):
That was a big increase.
We went over the no new revenuerate and for those that don't
know what the no new revenuerate is, simply put, it's
bringing in the same amount ofmoney that we did last year.
Usually it's a lower tax ratebecause values of the property

(36:45):
increase, so we can lower thetax rate and still make the same
amount of money.
So that's in, in essence, whatthe no new revenue rate is.
And then we have what's calleda voter approved rate.
Anything above that number hasto go to the voters for it to
get approved.
Cities, counties.
They don't like doing that.

(37:07):
They like because if it failsthen we have to automatically go
to the no new revenue rate.
So they try to stay under thatvoter approved rate.
But there are instances wherethey went to the voters.
Harris County did it aftertheir hurricanes and direct
shows and flooding.

(37:28):
They went above the no newrevenue rate or the voter
approved rate and it gotapproved by the
voters.
So what the county likes to dois to start out at the no new
revenue rate.
So that's what we started outworking with this budget year.
You know how much are we goingto bring in with the no new

(37:49):
revenue rate and then all allthe outside agencies, all the
elected officials, alldepartments.
They send in their budgetrequests and then we start going
through those.
But you know we still have todo business during the year and
during the year things come upthat we have to amend this

(38:11):
budget and that's usually anincrease on what we're spending.
So I had the auditor pulltogether how much budget
amendments have we've donealready this year.
So we're already about to beseven months in.
Well, actually we're over thatbecause the budget year starts
in October, in October, so oh,and also, before we get to that,

(38:52):
one penny, one cent on thecounty that the county assesses
equals about three and a halfmillion dollars, just so you
know.
So every penny that the countyincreases your taxes, it's about
three and a half milliondollars to Bell County.
This is a total.
If you see at the top right,that's a total of all the budget
amendments that we've done sofar this
year.
Some of the stuff it's coveredby insurance but we pay it up
front and the insurance willreimburse us once we get that
settlement.
So a lot of these things areone-time things.

(39:15):
Like the first one.
We hired a new contract managerand there was a couple of
months that we hired him earlyto start learning because the
other one retired.
That's $34,000.
That's not reoccurring.
The medical costs that will bereoccurring.
The medical costs that will bereoccurring.

(39:36):
If you look at the very bottomor close to the bottom, number
13,.
We added some new districtattorneys.
That will be an ongoing cost.
So some of these things areone-time costs.
Some of them are ongoingcosts.
But just for the budget so far,what we've done this year it's
$2.9 million.

(39:57):
So almost a penny, almost apenny.
So that's where we're starting,you know, the budget from.
These are our current budgetrequest totals that we got from
outside agencies, fromdepartments and other elected
officials.
Personnel requests four million, four and a half million

(40:20):
dollars of departments andelected officials saying, hey, I
need new jailers, I need newdeputies, I need new clerks, you
know those type of things, Ineed new deputy constables.
It's just, you know, we're agrowing county.
We ask a lot of our employeesand when we don't fund these

(40:41):
requests, we're asking ouremployees to do even more, to do
even more, without any help andwithout any additional pay.
So those are things that wehave to decide which ones are
gonna get approved and whichones are not gonna get approved.
Capital requests that's likeequipment.

(41:02):
You know, whenever we hire anew deputy they gotta ride
around in something.
So we gotta buy a vehicle andthose vehicles ain't cheap.
A Tahoe alone for the countyoutfitted is like ninety
thousand dollars for one andthat's very expensive.
So those are the things thatthat affect the budget and those

(41:25):
are the things that we're goingthrough line item for, you know
, for personnel, for equipment,and saying yes or no to our
elected officials and departmentheads.
Capital improvement projectsthat's a big number.
That's not all stuff we'retrying to do this budget year.
These are things that we haveto put and plan for five to ten

(41:48):
years out.
So some of the things on theCapital Improvement Project are
the Killeen Annex that's in thatnumber.
The Temple Annex we're lookingat, you know, expanding the
animal shelter.
We're looking at building a newjuvenile facility.
All those things are wrapped inthat number.
There's a lot of IT stuff inthere.
Bell County is responsible forthe 911 Center.
Bell County is responsible forthe 911 center, at least all the

(42:12):
capital stuff.
So those are all things thatthat are in that number.
Road and bridge equipment, youknow, tractors, dump trucks, all
those things, all thoserequests are in there.
So it's a total of two hundredand eight million dollars that
you know we got to pick from andwhat we're going to

(42:33):
spend.
What the judge likes to do isto do a percentage of our tax
revenue and put it to CIPprojects.
So we could kind of, you know,start biting at the apple,
taking that bite of the apple.
This year we had our bondingcompany come and talk to us and

(43:00):
they said even if we stay at theno new revenue rate, we can get
an additional $20 million incertificates of obligation.
So that just means we've beenpaying off debt and if we stay
at the same rate we could goahead and take out $20 million.
So we're most likely going todo that because, like I said,
it's not going to cost usanything, and then start

(43:22):
probably taking out some ofthese CIP projects.
Engineer building is one that Ithink that we're going to be
doing, a new engineer buildingand selling the one that we're
gonna be doing, a new engineerbuilding and selling the one
that we're currently in, becauseBelton likes all the downtown
stuff to be on the tax rolls andto be little shops and
stuff.
I have the list up here of CIPand personnel requests, so if

(43:47):
any of y'all wanna see them andlook to see who's asking for
what, I personally want moredeputies on the
road.
You know how many deputies wehave on the road at any given
time in Bell County, a county ofover 400,000 people Three,
three and I think that ourcitizens deserve more, and I

(44:09):
think that's our citizensdeserve more.
I know, since I've been elected, that the sheriff has asked for
more every time.
I've always supported thoserequests, but we don't have a
majority of people to remember,we need three votes to give the
sheriff more row deputies.
He has a lot of jailers and hisnumber is very big already If

(44:33):
you look at his budget.
So you know there's alwayshesitation to give them more.
But you know, I I haveconstituents all the time that
tell me I never see a deputy uh,and they live out in the
country.
So I want to try and add more,at least two, two, two deputies,
uh per district.
I think there's three districts, but it's going to cost money,

(44:57):
it's going to cost money.
Yes, If we stayed at the no newrevenue rate?
If we stayed at the no newrevenue rate, we would still be
eligible for the $20 million indebt.

(45:36):
No, I don't think it would.
I don't think it would.
I'm not a bond expert.
If we could cover it with thesame tax rate that we're doing
now, I don't see why it wouldincrease in future years.
But I don't know.
It's a good question.
I can definitely ask thatquestion.

(45:57):
So, anyways, you know we haveto do something with the $20
million.
So maybe you can help me figurethat out.
So this is our disabled veteranexemption here in Bell County.
You see, last year we had over15,000 people in Bell County.
If you see, last year we hadover 15,000 people in Bell
County that are I guess I don'tthink that's 100% disabled

(46:22):
veterans.
I'm 50%, so I'm sure I would bein that number somewhere.
But the total effect on BellCounty's tax rate is four cents.
We got two and a half milliondollars this year from the
comptroller's office and we lostwhat?
14 million.
So I mean there's a significantloss in property taxes revenue

(46:49):
from and the state's supposed toreimburse us and they were
trying to raise that this yearTexas revenue from and the
state's supposed to reimburse us.
And there were.
There was an uh, they weretrying to raise that this year
and I'm sure Scott could talk,talk about that in more detail
than I can.
Uh, but, uh, one of our staterepresentatives locally added
because there's only a couple ofentities that are eligible, I
think it was like 11 or 12.

(47:09):
They got three more addedParker Heights, lampasas and
Nolanville, which they're alldeserving.
I'm not saying that they don'tdeserve it, but the state did
not increase the allotment.
So what does that mean for BellCounty?
What does that mean for Killeen?

(47:30):
Our, our allocation is going togo down because now there's
more people, more entitiesdrawing from that bucket of
money.
So we're going to go down inthat money and I would assume
that account, that count ofveterans getting that exemption,
is going to continue toincrease.

(47:51):
So you got anything on that,right.

(48:15):
And the house version, I think,had a whole lot more money, I
think almost $90 million.
Yeah, yeah.
So Right, right.

(48:46):
And so I know the county, Iknow cities.
Every legislative year they tryand go out and champion that
and you know we'll just have totry again.
We'll have to try again to getthat raised.
So this is some of the otherservices that the state imposes

(49:08):
on counties to cover.
Disabled veteran.
You see that there Indigenthealth care.
We're going to talk more aboutindigent health care in a little
bit, but right now we'rerequired by law to dedicate 8%
of our budget to indigent healthcare.
So and part of the indigenthealth care is in the jail, so

(49:29):
that number is in there.
But also we give five hundredthousand dollars to the Killeen
Community Clinic to serviceindigent health care population
and we give five hundredthousand dollars Actually, I'm
sorry, five hundred and twentyfive thousand dollars to the
Killeen Clinic and five hundredand twenty five thousand dollars
to the temple clinic to helpcare and manage our indigent

(49:51):
health care population in belfcounty.
Um, you see all the other uhexemptions, uh and costs that
that the county has to do.
You see that bottom one lawjudge salary increase.
There's going to be anothersalary increase for district
judges.
This year they passed a law toraise the judges' pay.

(50:13):
It was one of the last thingsthat they did.
There's always been ahesitation to raise district
judge pay because it's tied tothe retirement of state
legislators, so they don't wantto look like they're giving
themselves a pay raise becauseeven though they don't make a
lot of money while they're inoffice, when they retire they

(50:34):
make the same retirement as adistrict judge.
So anyway, but that cost isgoing to come to the counties to
bear.
So the total of all thesethings for at least this budget
year, $32 million, $32.4 million.
Now, when I talked about theindigent health care, it's very

(51:01):
important to remember we aregetting taxed for it already.
We are already paying propertytaxes for our indigent health
care.
Eight percent of our budget bylaw has to go to that.
But there's another way ofdoing things.
Other larger counties havecounty hospital districts.
Smaller counties have countyhospital districts and I think

(51:24):
that's something that we need totake a look at doing.
A county hospital district inBell County.
It has to be approved by thevoters, so that's something that
we would be voting on.
And then there's three statutesthat cover the creation of a
hospital district, chapter 281,.

(51:45):
It's a board that is appointedby the commissioner's court, and
I think it could be 7 to 11.
It varies by the size of thecounty of how many board members
you have, but they're set bythe county commissioner's court.
Harris County, our largesthospital district in the county.

(52:06):
It's called Harris Health.
Their board is appointed by thecommissioner's court.
They're a over billion dollarhospital district but they set
the tax rate for the hospitaldistrict and they set the budget
.
The commissioner's courtapproves it or disapproves it.
They have no say-so over thebudget and no say-so over the

(52:28):
tax rate other than thumbs up orthumbs down.
So they can't do line itemvetoes.
They can't do anything likethat.
Chapter 283, it would be thecommissioner's court serving as
the board of the hospitaldistrict.
I don't think anyone wants that.
We are not health care expertsand I think people running a

(52:51):
hospital district sitting onthat board should be somewhat
knowledgeable on health carethreshold.
The first two you only need 100signatures on a petition to
force a vote to the voters.

(53:12):
The last one I think you need3% of registered voters in the
county.
That's about 8,000, 9,000signatures to create an elected
position for the hospitaldistrict.
An elected position for thehospital district.
So the hospital district.
They would cover indigenthealth care.
They would be responsible foreverything that the county is

(53:35):
doing now for indigent healthcare.
The opposite, or somethingdifferent that the hospital
district can do that the countyis not doing or the cities, is
public health.
Right now we contract with thepublic health district and if
you saw, they closed a facilityin Temple.
They're losing federal fundingand to me the hospital district

(53:58):
is like the hop.
You know, when budgets areconstrained, when federal
dollars are constrained,entities that are paying in,
they're going to be paying lessand less.
So those are less and lessservices for our residents.
So everything that the publichealth district does now a
hospital district can do, andthen the same thing with jail

(54:20):
medical.
The jail medical would fallunder the hospital district.
So I think the hospitaldistrict is an answer for these
rising costs.
You know we can't go over threeand a half percent of the tax
rate from this year to the next,so we're capped and there's

(54:45):
efforts in Austin to even reducethat more.
They want to do any taxincrease to be voter approved.
Anything over the no newrevenue rate, they want it to be
voter approved.
You know counties, cities,cannot operate like that.
So you know they tried thatthis legislative session.
I think they'll try it again.
But what this will do is shiftthe burden of indigent health

(55:12):
care from the county to thehospital district and that would
free us of that 8 percentrequirement.
Another thing that we do withhealth care in the county is we
tax all health care.
A lot of people don't know that, but here in Bell County it's
called the Local ProviderParticipation Fund.

(55:32):
It started in 2016, but we puta six percent tax on all health
care in the county and we dothat at the request of the
hospitals.
They ask us to do that Now.
They pay it.
The hospitals pay it becausethey get one and a half times
their money back from thefederal government.

(55:53):
So that's kind of a workaround.
Medicaid expansion this istheir workaround for that.
But right now at the federallevel they're trying to cut.
It's called LPPF.
They're trying to cut LPPF.
They're also trying to cutMedicaid, medicare benefits and

(56:14):
who's eligible.
So I think there's going to bea bigger shift of medical and
indigent care to counties.
Cities are not responsible forit.
It's the county that'sresponsible for indigent health
care, are not responsible for it.
It's the county that'sresponsible for indigent health
care.

(56:38):
One of the things right now thatthe LPPF allows us to do is to
subsidize indigent programs.
That's what the law sayssubsidize indigent programs.
Historically, here the LPPF,baylor, scott and White they
come and say hey, I want you totax us.
County commissioners say yesand that's it.
We funnel the money to thefederal government, to the state
and funnel it back.
It's just been a circle withBaylor Scott, white and the

(57:04):
other hospitals in the county.
But when I started looking intothe law it says that they have
to do more things to us.
They have to give us theirfinancials, they have to let us
know what they're spending it on.
And whenever I asked for it thecounty never had it before.
So I asked for these reportsthat they have to give to the

(57:24):
state and Baylorlor Scott andWhite and all of them started
giving them to me.
It covers the LPPF is good.
It's supposed to cover theiruncompensated care.
So you know when you go to thehospital if you don't have
medical insurance.
If you don't have, you know ifyou're an immigrant they can't
turn you down.

(57:44):
They have to provide you careand that uncompensated care is
supposed to be taken care ofthrough the LPPF.
They said since Bell County hasstarted participating in LPPF
we've got half a billion dollarsback from the federal
government in LPPF.

(58:07):
That provision of LPPF where ittalks about subsidizing indigent
health programs.
No one knows what that means noother county has used it, no
other.
Well, if you have a hospitaldistrict you could do your own
LPPF so you don't have to goafter that money.

(58:29):
But so I brought it up toBaylor Scott and White in a
meeting last week.
What does that mean to them?
What is subsidizing indigentprograms mean to them?
They said they have to talk totheir lawyers first.
So I think there's room therefor us to get $4 million out of

(58:50):
the LPPF and help pay for ourjail medical so we don't have to
increase your taxes.
That's what I'm looking to dowith LPPF.
Their representatives it wasn'tan attorney, I think it was
some type of you know firm thatrepresents LPPS to you know

(59:12):
figure out what they thinksubsidizing indigent health
programs mean and then come talkto us.
So that's you know.
We're working on that to seeabout lowering the costs of our
indigent health care, ourgeneral medical, so it doesn't
affect the county taxpayer.
You had a question in the back.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
I'm going to start off with a, the country for a
facility to develop, and then ontop of that in a hospital

(01:00:15):
district.
A hospital district can alsocarve similar TLCs, but they can
carve their own TLCs and justadd it on to everything.
In a hospital district there'sno way that 75 cents will not be
a more or less going forward.
That, whatever that offsentence, either that will be
off, or it will go to the next,or it will go to the next, or it

(01:00:44):
will go to the next, or it willgo to the next, or it will go
to the benefit of everyone.
And again, even if they don'thave to go to the hospital,
they're 100% disabled.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
So they don't.
So we have almost $8 millionthat we're paying for indigent
health care.
The county is paying anduncompensated care.
Last year we paid $180 million.
So to me I think that's alittle bit more the true cost of

(01:01:23):
indigent health care here inBell County $188 million.
So what does that look like ina tax rate?
You know, probably 30, 40 cents.
So if you and there areprovisions in the law in
creating a hospital districtthat you can do a bond election
at the same time but that'sgoing to be something for the

(01:01:46):
voters to decide thecommissioner's court can call
for an election on its own.
I don't know if they would dothat.
If we would do that, I don'tthink I have three votes for
that.
But, like I said, all it takesis a petition of 100 signatures
Bell County registered voters toforce an election on a hospital

(01:02:10):
district.
Sure, sure.
Right to do what we're doing now.

(01:02:41):
You know the status quo.
I mean it's going to get passeddown one way or the other,
either through uncompensatedcare or, you know, as the budget
increases because we, you know,we increase value of our
property, then that three and ahalf percent or that eight
percent of our budget it'llincrease every year because

(01:03:04):
property values increase.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
But outside of that I don I don't see doing more as
long as we have personal data,we can build yeah, yeah, yeah,

(01:03:51):
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm having a hard
time.
Yeah, va won't pay anything,they won't provide any
medication.
Same thing with TRICARE theywon't pay anything, they won't
provide medication.
So if you're an active dutysoldier, if you're a disabled
veteran and you get put in theBell County Jail, you're not

(01:04:22):
going to get any medication.
We got to give it to you eventhough you have a brand new
bottle with VA on it and ithasn't been opened.
You know the jail says you canbring it in, but you know it's
not going to be right away.
I don't know.

(01:04:50):
That's a good question that wecan ask, but I think,
technically, if you're in jail,like your benefits stop, so but
that's something that we cancheck.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
Scott, did you have a question?
Right now, the local provideris making a tax.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
It's like they say we don't want to get a tax.
The hospital is somehow readyto take a federal one, correct?
So it covers uncompensated care.
Do you sell it to get the taxcut?
No, it goes to the hospitals.

(01:05:52):
Is uncompensated care?
No, it goes to the hospitals.
So we have to.
We assess the tax Now and I gotinto it with Baylor, scott and
White.
They're like, oh, we pay it.
I'm like, okay, it doesn'tmatter who pays it, whether you
pay it or the patient pays it,that we're levying a tax on
health care.
Now y'all opt to pay it.

(01:06:14):
You decide to pay it so you canget that money back.
But if you didn't pay it and weassessed it, you would have to
collect it from the patient.
So to me that money should beused for help offset, subsidize
our indigent health care program, because if we do that then
that's going to help lower ourtax rate.

(01:06:34):
So at least in the immediate wecould do that in the immediate.
Was there another question overhere?

Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
I was just going to say so.
Patients that are disabled.
They're considered indigent.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
Right now they reimburse the county.
So if we get someone new andthey're eligible for indigent
health care, what they try to dois get them on Medicare.
If they're approved, they willreimburse us all the money that
we've spent on them.
So anytime someone new comesinto the indigent health care
program and they are a UScitizen, that's one of the first

(01:07:18):
things that we try to do is getthem qualified on one of these
other things because we will getreimbursed and we do get
reimbursement money from themthings because we will get
reimbursed and we do getreimbursement money from from
them.
Any other questions on hospitaldistricts?

(01:07:39):
Okay, the last thing I want totalk about is ESDs, emergency
Service Districts.
They're created by voters andfunded by property taxes.
So emergency service districtsare out in the rural parts of
the county.
If you're in the city limits,you don't have to worry about it
, because you pay for fireservice, ambulance service
already, but if you don't, rightnow in the county, well, until

(01:08:03):
a couple of years ago,everything was volunteer and we
had all the vfds that performservices for many years uh, you
know serving the residents ofbell county.
But that model is changing.
What's changing?
That is, the county is growing,the need is growing and the
county doesn't fund fireservices and emergency services

(01:08:28):
properly.
Right now Bell County only hasone contract for one ambulance
out in the entire county.
Does that make sense?
It doesn't.
And we've been dependent on thecity of Killeen, here on the
west side of the county, to takecare of all the ambulance
service.
And that's what we've beendoing and that's been great, to

(01:08:48):
take care of all the ambulanceservice.
And that's what we've beendoing and that's been great.
That's been working well forthe county for many, many years.
But it's not now because thecity of Killeen said they're not
going to service Turnbow Ranch.
Turnbow Ranch I drove throughit today.
There's tons of houses outthere now.
I mean just not even a year agothere were zero houses out

(01:09:10):
there.
There's probably 100 plushouses out there in some form of
construction.
So the city of Killeen saidthey're not going to service
them.
So right now, if they have anambulance, the need for an
ambulance is going to come fromNolanville or Salado, that's it.
And to me that's that's notgoing to work.

(01:09:30):
Uh, southwest bell fire, thatcovers that area.
They don't have an ambulance.
So you know, an esd would beable to handle fire and
ambulance service.
Uh, it's needed.
Like I I said, we're a growingcounty.
A lot of the other ESDs thatwere created so far they have

(01:09:52):
not included ambulance service,because you have to include that
in your petition the servicesthat you want to provide.
So if you want to look up thestatute, it's chapter 775 of the
Health and Safety Code for thecreation of an emergency service
district, of the Health andSafety Code for the creation of

(01:10:12):
emergency service district.
Hold on, we're getting there.
We're getting there.
So right now we have ESD-1.
It was the first one created in2020, and that's Salado, the
Salado Volunteer Fire Departmentand the city of Salado.
To my understanding, if I thinkcorrectly, they opted to become
Bell County's first ESD.

(01:10:32):
They've been there for a coupleof years.
That is their tax rate rightnow for the ESD.
I think it could go up to 15cents, if I remember correctly.
So that's where they're at andI don't think Salado provides
ambulance service because youknow an ambulance can cost about

(01:10:53):
$500,000 just for the box andthen you've got to put the EMT
and the paramedic and all thatstuff and staff at 24 hours,
seven days a week.
So you know you're talkingmoney.
But this is services that weexpect.
You know, if you're out here inTurnbull Ranch and you have a
heart attack or some type ofmedical, you don't want to wait
35-40 minutes for an ambulanceto come reach you.

(01:11:14):
You'll be dead and I don't.
I don't want that to happenwhen we could do something about
it.
So this is ESD number one thatwas created.
We have ESD number two that wascreated last year by the voters.
Now there's still some.

(01:11:35):
We don't know the exactboundaries of where it was,
because the city of Troy wassupposed to be in the ESD but
they opted out of it.
We're trying to figure outexactly where the ESD, but they
opted out of it.
So we're trying to figure outexactly where the ESD is, but
it's kind of in the northernBell County, that light

(01:11:56):
purplish-blue area.
North Bell County is the ESDnumber two.
So how much money is the countypaying for fire and ambulance
Do you think?
You know we're 400,000 people.
How much do you think thatwe're paying for that?
You said zero in the back.

(01:12:19):
It's a little bit more thanzero, but okay, we'll get there
in a second ESD3.
There's talks right now.
We had a petition that cameinto Bell County this year to
create ESD 3.
What is gonna be ESD 3?
Nolanville, sparta andStillhouse.

(01:12:40):
That's gonna be three creeks,you know three creeks out there
off of 1670.
All that area is gonna be anESD if it gets approved by the
voters in November.
There was some stuff wrong withtheir petition so we denied it,
but there's still time for themto fix it and I fully

(01:13:00):
anticipate them to bring thatcorrected petition to us because
we have until mid-July or earlyAugust to call for an election.
So, another ESD in Bell County.
If you go to Williamson County,travis County, there's ESDs
everywhere.
So just so you know, this isn'tsomething that's new or novel.

(01:13:23):
It happens in growingcommunities because the county
cannot afford to pay for theservices that are needed,
because we're capped at 3.5% taxincrease.
Esd4, that's something that I'mlooking to do.
That would be in the lighterblue portion right here in the

(01:13:47):
lower left-hand corner.
That's Southwest Bell currently.
Now they would still exist.
Southwest Bell wouldn't go away, but an ESD would be created in
that service area and that'swhat I'm looking to bring to
citizens.
Yes, ma'am, yeah, yeah, mm-hmm.

(01:14:09):
Yeah, salato Volunteer FireDepartment still exists.
They didn't go away.
They work with the ESD?
Oh yeah, no, they, theywouldn't go away.
The ESD is still there.
I would imagine SpartaVolunteer Fire Department will
still be there.
They could incorporate into theESD or they could still be a

(01:14:37):
volunteer fire department.
Yes, ma'am, property tax, therewould be an additional property
tax.
Yes, yes.
So you know what is your healthand safety, you know, worth to
you?
That's what you got to thinkabout.
You know, are you willing tokeep the status quo and wait 45

(01:14:58):
minutes for an ambulance to comeget to you, or you want the
ambulance there in 10?
You know that's the decisionswe're going to have to make here
in the distant future.

Speaker 2 (01:15:16):
Not so distant future , yes, ma'am, but also the only
individual who can actuallyafford it, and we are offering
them within that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
Correct, and they would be the ones voting for it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:36):
Right.
So as a citizen and aincorporated woman of the
community, I don't see any pointin the school system for that
result of itself.

(01:16:15):
It does have a good Right, yeah, right.

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
So real quick.
Let me just finish off with.
I asked you a question of howmuch does the county pay for
fire and ambulance service outin the rural parts of the county
.
That's the number right there,the number that that's on there.
Five hundred seventy fivethousand dollars, that's how
much we pay all the volunteerfire departments.
We give them a little of money,uh, and it's it doesn't go to

(01:16:49):
them.
Just like you know, steelhouse,you get x number of dollars.
It's based off of runs.
So how many times they getcalled out and they go?
That's what it's based off of.
So we have that pot of moneythere.
A hundred thousand of that isfor grant matches.
So you could take a hundred,you'll take a hundred thousand
out of that and that's actuallywhat we're paying them.
That $100,000 helps them buyequipment and vehicles.

(01:17:13):
So that's what that money's for.
So they don't get a lot ofmoney and I think they are
underfunded and they'll never beable to catch up to the need
funded and they'll never be ableto catch up to the need.
You know they can't have enoughbake sales to catch up to the
need to be able to buy a$500,000 ambulance or a

(01:17:36):
million-dollar fire truck.
So you know we have to look atother ways to fund that and
that's going to be throughproperty taxes.
So that's about all that I have.
You know the main thing is Iwanted to engage with y'all, I
wanted to let y'all know whatour budget is looking like.
I wanted you to know therequests that are coming in and

(01:17:59):
you know decisions that we'regonna have to make, and you know
I wanted input from y'all.
So thank y'all for coming out.
Are there any other questions?
No, no, not really, other thanat the juvenile center, whatever

(01:18:21):
educational, but we just givethem money.
We don't do anything with thecurriculum or anything like that
.
The chief juvenile probationofficer does.
Yes, ma'am, to the hop.
I think it's I I don't know theanswer the exact number.

(01:18:44):
I remember I said on the hopboard I think, if I remember
correctly, the county's like 300something.
Thousand into the hop is veryminuscule from for the need.

Speaker 2 (01:19:17):
So yeah, the HOPP should be able to qualify for
federal.

Speaker 1 (01:19:34):
I think the revenue you might be talking about is
from Fort Hood.
Well, no, they get a lot ofmoney from Fort Hood.
Okay, okay, I'll look into that.

(01:19:56):
I just got appointed to theboard.
I've only attended two meetings, but I'll make note of that.
Any other questions?
Any other questions?
Well, thank you all for coming.
You got a question now.
Okay, thank y'all for coming.

(01:20:16):
It's been great.
I enjoyed spending this timeand, please, we have cards back
there.
If you want to shoot me anemail any ideas that y'all want
any, I don't mind sharing therequest that we got from the
county departments and electedofficials.
I don't mind sharing the CIPlist that we're going to choose

(01:20:38):
from.
So if you want any of thatinformation, let me know and
we'll share it with you.
Thank you.