{"id":422479,"date":"2026-09-01T03:56:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T03:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/422479\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T03:56:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T03:56:35","slug":"lubbock-county-commissioners-propose-no-new-revenue-tax-rate-as-budget-talks-grow-tense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/422479\/","title":{"rendered":"Lubbock County commissioners propose no-new-revenue tax rate as budget talks grow tense"},"content":{"rendered":"

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Lubbock County\u2019s auditor will file the proposed budget for next year in the coming days.<\/p>\n

The proposal would lower property taxes for homeowners, but County Judge Curtis Parrish said it comes at a cost to the county\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

Lubbock County commissioners are proposing to adopt the no-new-revenue property tax rate, consistent with the rate adopted in recent years.<\/p>\n

This year, some internal budget discussions have been made more public. Along with the tax rate and budget hearings, which have always been public, the county shared recordings<\/a> of several workshops held over the summer.<\/p>\n

Workshop ends with commissioners walking out<\/p>\n

The most recent workshop, held earlier this month, ended with some commissioners getting up and walking out mid-conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already said what we said we want to do. We\u2019re done,\u201d Commissioner Jason Corley said.<\/p>\n

Commissioners Jason Corley, Cary Shaw and Jordan Rackler got up and left after about 25 minutes of conversation with the county judge and auditor.<\/p>\n

The meeting was scheduled as a follow-up with the sheriff\u2019s office but turned into a broader conversation about how the county can move forward with the no-new-revenue rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just robs our future,\u201d Parrish said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a consensus,\u201d Corley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a consensus on how to balance the budget,\u201d County Auditor Kathy Williams said.<\/p>\n

The court proposed<\/a> the no-new-revenue tax rate of .322, down from .327 last year. That amounts to about a $27 discount for the average homeowner compared with last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because it\u2019s proposed, and you put it in the paper, you can still come back and vote on a tax rate that will support the needs of the county,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

Williams said that rate would bring in about $1 million less than last year, while several county department heads have said their costs continue to rise.<\/p>\n

Williams said the no-new-revenue rate wouldn\u2019t leave room for recurring expenses, like cost-of-living adjustments, or raises, for county employees, which commissioners have said they want to provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow am I supposed to pay for COLA? A recurring expense that I\u2019m telling you the no-new-revenue rate will not fund. Would you not rate the tax rate at least enough for COLA?\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

Williams said that going to that rate would still lead to a decrease in homeowners\u2019 property taxes. Under the no-new-revenue rate, Williams said she would have to do a budget amendment to provide a COLA, and would have to determine if it\u2019s legal first.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you don\u2019t want to follow the GFOA\u2019s recommendation on how to do a balanced budget. That\u2019s what you\u2019re telling me?\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, 100 percent,\u201d Corley said.<\/p>\n

If commissioners want to fund the COLA, Williams said they have to find the money for it somewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow your job is to cut what you decided not to fund, to balance this budget, to zero,\u201d Williams said. \u201cYou had all day to do it. You did nothing. Yes, you all did nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheriff Kelly Rowe says safety in the county<\/a> will suffer if something doesn\u2019t change.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we\u2019re not doing a needs-based budget?\u201d Parrish said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing a no-new-revenue rate budget,\u201d Rackler said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow long can you guys sustain that? Just every year it\u2019s the same…and we continue to not address issues that are long-standing, whether it\u2019s facilities, whether it\u2019s personnel, whether it\u2019s whatever, while you guys \u2014 and I said this to all four of you last year \u2014 because you don\u2019t have to live with the ramifications of these decisions you make,\u201d Rowe said.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, the commissioners\u2019 court proposed the no-new-revenue rate. On Friday, Sept. 4, the auditor is set to file the proposed budget with the county clerk. A public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 14, where residents can share their input with commissioners.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Lubbock County\u2019s auditor will file the proposed budget for next year in the coming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[147034,147032,2050,2438,21355,2440,11775,18830,1522,2441,2436,16401,666,44598,147033,84452,14587,36623,2437,147035,37305,17748,168,170,169,2448,2447,147029,69054,2446,124246,147030,2445,147031,71032,19503],"class_list":["post-422479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-adjustment","tag-auditor","tag-budget","tag-cary-shaw","tag-cola","tag-commissioners","tag-cost","tag-cost-of-living","tag-county","tag-court","tag-curtis-parrish","tag-employee","tag-funding","tag-future","tag-gap","tag-grow","tag-hearing","tag-jason-corley","tag-jordan-rackler","tag-kathy-williams","tag-kelly-rowe","tag-living","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-no-new-revenue","tag-property","tag-propose","tag-raises","tag-rate","tag-recording","tag-talks","tag-tax","tag-tense","tag-walkout","tag-workshop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422479","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=422479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}