The commissioners court must act on the proposed budget after the public hearing, use a record vote to adopt it, and include required tax and debt information on the budget cover page.
Sec. 111.039. ADOPTION OF BUDGET. (a) At the conclusion of the public hearing, the commissioners court shall take action on the proposed budget. A vote to adopt the budget must be a record vote. (b) The commissioners court may make any changes in the proposed budget that it considers warranted by the facts and law and required by the interest of the taxpayers, but the amounts budgeted in a fiscal year for expenditures from the various funds of the county may not exceed the balances in those funds as of the first day of the fiscal year, plus the anticipated revenue for the fiscal year as estimated by the county auditor. (c) Adoption of a budget that will require raising more revenue from property taxes than in the previous year requires a separate vote of the commissioners court to ratify the property tax increase reflected in the budget. A vote under this subsection is in addition to and separate from the vote to adopt the budget or a vote to set the tax rate required by Chapter 26, Tax Code, or other law. (d) An adopted budget must contain a cover page that includes: (1) one of the following statements in 18-point or larger type that accurately describes the adopted budget: (A) "This budget will raise more revenue from property taxes than last year's budget by an amount of (insert total dollar amount of increase), which is a (insert percentage increase) percent increase from last year's budget. The property tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year is (insert amount computed by multiplying the proposed tax rate by the value of new property added to the roll)."; (B) "This budget will raise less revenue from property taxes than last year's budget by an amount of (insert total dollar amount of decrease), which is a (insert percentage decrease) percent decrease from last year's budget. The property tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year is (insert amount computed by multiplying the proposed tax rate by the value of new property added to the roll)."; or (C) "This budget will raise the same amount of revenue from property taxes as last year's budget. The property tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year is (insert amount computed by multiplying the proposed tax rate by the value of new property added to the roll)."; (2) the record vote of each member of the commissioners court by name voting on the adoption of the budget; (3) the county property tax rates for the preceding fiscal year, and each county property tax rate that has been adopted or calculated for the current fiscal year, including: (A) the property tax rate; (B) the no-new-revenue tax rate; (C) the no-new-revenue maintenance and operations tax rate; (D) the voter-approval tax rate; and (E) the debt rate; and (4) the total amount of county debt obligations. (e) In this section, "debt obligation" means an issued public security as defined by Section 1201.002, Government Code, secured by property taxes. Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 149, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1987. Amended by: Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 924 (H.B. 3195), Sec. 17, eff. September 1, 2007. Acts 2013, 83rd Leg., R.S., Ch. 1329 (S.B. 656), Sec. 5, eff. September 1, 2013. Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 944 (S.B. 2), Sec. 81, eff. January 1, 2020.