LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The impact of Lubbock County\u2019s no-new-revenue tax rate is starting to be felt as volunteer fire departments are missing out on a portion of funding they\u2019ve received for the last several years.<\/p>\n
The issue came to a head during Monday morning\u2019s commissioners court meeting, where what has become a routine agenda item hit a roadblock. <\/p>\n
Commissioners unanimously approved \u201ccritical needs\u201d funding for Lubbock county\u2019s volunteer fire departments. But because of budget shortfalls due to commissioner\u2019s approving the no-new-revenue property tax rate in August, that funding was slashed in half for 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis budget has cut law enforcement and has cut fire departments, has cut courts, has cut clerks, has cut every single department in this county, except for parks and clubhouses,\u201d County Judge Curtis Parrish said.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Cary Shaw defended the court\u2019s decision, saying the no-new-revenue rate is saving money for the citizens of Lubbock County.<\/p>\n
Parrish says that tax rate decision is now directly impacting public safety. <\/p>\n
Seven years ago, Parrish and the court created the Critical Needs Funding program to help the county\u2019s volunteer fire departments purchase new equipment \u2014 specifically items their regular budgets wouldn\u2019t be able to cover.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat in itself, that program that Judge Parrish initially dreamed up has put Lubbock County firefighters light years ahead of where they were,\u201d said Tim Smith, chief at West Carlisle Volunteer Fire Department.<\/p>\n
Smith said the funding has helped purchase essential equipment like bunker gear, air packs, hoses and nozzles. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not buying stuff just to buy stuff. We\u2019re buying stuff that we should have been buying over the years, but we just didn\u2019t have the funds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The county\u2019s volunteer fire departments have regularly split the allotted $500,000 in Critical Needs funding. This year, that line item was cut in half, so each department is receiving about $22,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cPublic safety is important. And when you base your whole message on public safety, it kind of gives us a bad feeling when you allow it to be cut so freely,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
West Carlisle is using its reduced funding to finish purchasing a backup generator, after a tornado earlier this year tore off the station\u2019s roof and knocked out power. However, that means new hoses and nozzles will have to wait.<\/p>\n
Despite the funding challenges, Smith emphasized the department\u2019s commitment to service. <\/p>\n
\u201cNow, as volunteer fire departments, we\u2019re not going to let it slow us down. You\u2019re still going to receive well-trained, well-equipped firefighters within a few minutes of your 911 call. We promise to uphold that to the best of our abilities despite what funding comes our way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Smith says commissioners voted based on what they were hearing from their constituents. If Lubbock County residents want their volunteer fire departments to see the full Critical Needs funding to return next year, he encourages them to give their commissioners a call.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The impact of Lubbock County\u2019s no-new-revenue tax rate is starting to be felt as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2443,2431,2438,2439,2440,1522,2441,2432,2436,2449,2429,2450,2444,2451,630,666,2437,2435,168,170,169,2442,2433,2448,2452,2434,2447,1225,2446,2445,2453,1444,2430],"class_list":["post-2105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-agenda","tag-carlisle","tag-cary-shaw","tag-commissioner","tag-commissioners","tag-county","tag-court","tag-critical","tag-curtis-parrish","tag-cuts","tag-department","tag-drop","tag-equipment","tag-face","tag-fire","tag-funding","tag-jordan-rackler","tag-judge","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-meeting","tag-needs","tag-no-new-revenue","tag-partial","tag-program","tag-property","tag-public-safety","tag-rate","tag-tax","tag-tim-smith","tag-volunteer","tag-west"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}