Erath County Commissioners Court approved a lower tax rate and adopted its budget including a 3% raise for all county employees at its Monday, Sept. 14 meeting.
With this year’s tax rate, the county has approved lower than the no-new-revenue rate, and adopted $.3700 per $100 valuation. This is $1,423.22 in county taxes for an estimated 2026 tax bill.
The tax levy was also set with a designation of $.2773 for the General Fund and $.0927 for Road and Bridge.
In the land development portion of the meeting, a lot within the Dowell Addition subdivision was replatted into two lots, one for a driveway and parking and the other for the building.
A slew of election services contracts were approved for the Nov. 3 election including school board races for Bluff Dale ISD, Huckabay ISD, Morgan Mill ISD and Santo ISD.
Voters may be slightly confused to see Texas Senate District 22 on the ballot twice. However, one is a race to fill former Senator Brian Birdwell’s seat for four months in the unexpired term and a general election to fill the seat starting in January. This race includes candidates David Cook and Amy Martinez-Salas.
The court also approved the notice for the general election along with a facilities use agreement with Texas A&M AgriLife Research as a polling location and the community room reservation contract with United Electric Cooperative Services as a polling location.
For those who may wish to take a look at the sample ballots, they are available online at www.co.erath. tx.us, and will be included in a Voter’s Guide of the Dublin Citizen.
Two service agreement contracts were signed for preventative maintenance for the spacesaving shelving in vaults for the county clerk’s and tax assessor collector’s office. A service maintenance agreement was also approved between Kirbos and the Tas Office.
The court also approved purchasing CIVICPLUS DocAccess for documentary accessibility for its website. The software allows an individual with a visual impairment to use the website audibly.
The court also set commissioners court for FY 2027 leaving the meetings on the 2nd and 4th Mondays at 9 a.m. at the courthouse.
Both an administrative clerk and payroll clerk job description have been added to the county’s HR handbook, updating the positions and those in the roles.
The court also approved interlocal agreements between the county and a number of volunteer fire departments, which is done annually.
SROs were a topic of conversation at the meeting including allowing Three Way ISD out of their contract a month early without any fee to the county. Sheriff Matt Coates said the district had asked not to renew their contract and go ahead and not pay for the month of September. There is currently not a deputy assigned to the district. Coates said he had no issue with it, and they would still aid with traffic control when feasible.
SRO contracts were approved between ECSO and Whitehorse Christian Academy, Morgan Mill ISD and Bluff Dale ISD. Currently, the districts pay the salaries of the deputies and the county pays for their vehicles, training, equipment and uniforms.