The Erath County Commissioners’ Court voted to freeze residence homestead taxes for Erath County residents age 65 and over during a regular meeting Tuesday morning.
Erath County Tax Assessor/Collector Jennifer Carey reported to the large crowd in the Commissioners’ Courtroom who had gathered to hear the decision that the home portion of taxes for Erath County residents 65 and over would be frozen the current dollar amount.
Commissioner Jim Buck, who reportedly first brought up the freeze in the Aug. 24, 2020 meeting, said “We’ve studied this and feel like this is very important for our over 65 [residents] on limited incomes.”
“We’ve got to do something,” Buck said of Erath’s seniors, citing a “30 percent inflation” in the cost of living this year. “The Federal government is not helping them.”
The vote was unanimous after Buck moved for the vote and Joe Brown seconded. Albert Ray was absent for the meeting.
The vote in favor of the freeze prompted applause from the packed audience.
The commissioners also heard the bi-annual report on the Sexual Assault Response Team by Cross Timbers Family Service Executive Director Laura Gambino. The SART is made up of many county, law, nonprofit and medical officials to help combat sexual violence in the county. Gambino said the regular reports were required after the state passed SB476 in September.
She also reported that the new legislation puts the burden on managing the team on the county. (Erath has had a SART since 2012, funded through a grant.) Gambino hoped that the commissioners would continue to support the SART program, noting that CTFS had recently seen an increase in cases as the county population grew. Gambino felt that the changes at the state level were made so there would be more oversight.
Two had signed up for public comment, one asking for clarification on the homestead exemption vote and Georgia Scott, who said she had noticed several ads looking for landowners interested in putting up solar farms. Scott said the ads cited United Co-op as being involved in the interest, and she reported she called the co-op and was told they were not involved.