POSTED: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 - 7:00pm
UPDATED: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 - 7:14pm
Longview, TX — Gregg County commissioners approved their spending plan for the 2012-13 fiscal year on Monday on a 4-1 vote after discussing philosophical differences over how healthy to keep the reserve balance.
“This budget raises taxes when we don’t need the money,” Commissioner Darryl Primo explained his dissension on both the $59.9 million spending plan and its 26¼-cent tax rate. “We have money running out of our ears.”
Though a quarter-cent lower than this year’s tax rate, the new one raises $482,000 more than this year’s rate did. County Judge Bill Stoudt noted about two-thirds of that comes from new home and business construction, which Stoudt says was prompted by capital improvements that continue in the new budget.
Those expenses this year top $12 million and include $5 million as the county’s portion for widening and extending George Richey Road as an east-west corridor in northern Gregg County.
Another $1.3 million is included as the county’s portion of a multi-governmental fund to widen Texas 42 from Interstate 20 south to Kilgore.
To read more visit KETK newspaper partner the Longview News-Journal. [1]