The Denton County Commissioner's Court for Tuesday, August 25, 2009 is now in session. This morning our invocation to be given by Barbara Lupar, our aid to the court, and our pledges will be led by Scott Aldridge, who is Assistant to Purchasing Director. We please stand. Today to ask your many blessings upon this Commissioner's Court, they with the Commissioner's Court that that will make the decisions that benefit Denton County and that will praise you. Heavenly Father, we pray that you will be with all the armed forces today, that you will just protect them, wrap your arms around them and take care of them. Heavenly Father, those of us who have sick loved ones, Heavenly Father, we just pray that you'll be with each and every one of them and that you will just protect them and ease them in your precious holy name we pray. Amen. Please join me in the pledges. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice are all. On order to take Texas like I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under God one and indivisible. Thank you. Item one is for input, public input for items not posted in the agenda. If there's any member of the public that would like to address the commissioner's court, we ask that you please complete a public comment form available from the aid to the court. We'd like to hear from you. And to remind everyone to please turn off your cell phones and pages. And under public comment, I'd like to publicly welcome our publicly say happy birthday to Kim Gillis. It's today isn't it? Well happy birthday. Okay item 2 is the consent agenda members are there items on the consent agenda that you would like to pull for discussion or do we have a motion for approval? I'll come back for approval. We have a motion for approval by Commissioner Coleman, seconded by Commissioner Eans. On favor, please say aye. Aye opposed to name. Motion does carry. Consent agenda today consists of two a, which is approval of order making appointments. We have three new hires in the county jail, and a rehire in the county jail and a re-hire in the possible precinct for this is for the Northwest ISD contract. 2B is approval of the inter-departmental transfers. 2C is approval of rejection of all beds. This is bid number 06091980, laundry and dishwasher detergent. 2D is approval of specifications and 30 to advertise for Laundry and dishwasher detergent, bid number 0609192. 2E is approval specifications and 30 to advertise for a South County Line road bridge replacement, bid number 0809193. 2F is approval specifications and authority to advertise for Rp 0708-1986 that in county courts, 4th floor finish out, appointment of the evaluation committee to include Beth Fleming, Danny Brimley, Brian King, and Bill Petrelli with phrase and nickels. 2G is approval specifications for engineering services for a triple eight on system projects appointment of the evaluation committee. To H is a provost budget amendment request 101 860 for evidence expense for criminal justice attorney in the amount of $4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 of the bill report payments from CSCD, Community Corrections, T-A-I-P, Shares, Trainers, Shares, Forfeiture, V-I-T, Interest, D-A-Check, V-D-A-Fourfeiture funds are presented for recording purposes only. Whereas James Wells today, D-A, a little vacation. Those legislative conference. Right. a little vacation. Those legislative conference. Great. Morning. I have three deletions from the general fund. They're all miscellaneous processing errors. Two deletions from the public health fund. One deletion from the law library. And I have three additions, one from court four general fund. This one we had on for this week, but we misread the amount. So we're adding $700 to correct it and get it expedited. One from Museum for Expedite Payment for Travel Expenses. And one from the Sheriff's Office for Fitcher Fund to Sheriff for Fitcher. Excuse me. Gainesville Police Department. Those are all the corrections'm sorry. Excuse me. Gainesville, please. Those are all the corrections I have. Thank you. Any questions from members of the court? Do we have a motion for approval? Motion by commission march. Seconded by commissioner Eans. Hearing no questions. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed to the need. Motion does carry. 6A is approval of the report on proceeds from surplus online auction. This is number 06091978. We'll hear from Scott. Morning, Judge Commissioners. This is to report the proceeds from our last auction. We have 158,144.95. You'll see in the bright down list where those funds will be allocated. This is one of the largest auctions we've had. We had a lot of burden bridge equipment to go into that auction. But if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer that for you. My auction sure works a lot better than the old way done. Yes, ma'am, it does. And are there any questions from maybe the court for approval? Motion by Commissioner Marchin. Seconded by Commissioner Marchin. Seconded by Commissioner Eads. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, Cine? Ms. Carrey, 7a is approval of budget amendment of quest 101740 to increase revenues and allocate expenditures for various line items for cities rating this initiative grant in the amount of $138,815. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Marchandt. Seconded by Commissioner Eans, are there questions? No, no, in favor, please say aye. Aye, opposed to any? Motion goes carry. Seven B is approval of Budget Amendment request 101-850 for court appointed attorneys, including the transfer of funds from non-departmental and appropriated court order contingency for county criminal court number one in the amount of $40,000. Contell at the end of the budget year, Donna. This is the one of several to come. We've received several in our office. As you know, these fees fluctuate from year to year and it's very hard to budget for these expenditures. So we include funds in contingency each year and that's what this request is to take $40,000 for a county criminal court number one. We did actually reduce that budget this year from to from $25,000 or $215,000 to $200,000. So we did cut them a little short but we did put the funds in contingency. So we're recommending approval of this today. Their expense history for the last two months of the year, average anywhere from $35 to $40,000. So this amendment isn't appropriate amount. Thank you. Any other questions from members of the court? Do you have a motion for approval? I move for approval. Motion by commission. Paul and seconded by commission or eans. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed to any? Motion is carried. 7C is approval of budget amendment quest 101-870 for operating equipment, including the creation of a new line item for grant contract purposes for fiscal year 2008-2009 for DISD school resource officer in the amount of $209. $123. Motion by commissioners. Collin, seconded by commissioners. Marchant, questions? On favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, aye. Motion is carried. 8A is approved. The adoption of a contribution rate of 9.80% which includes 80% of the CPI for retirees and we're here from Amy Phillips. Good morning. Thank you, Judge, and good morning members of the court. Each year, the commissioners court considers plan benefits in the retirement system, TCDRS, and determines an annually determined contribution rate for the employer. The employee rate will not change. We are recommending 9.8 to keep the benefits where we are. Currently, this is up from last year as we notified you some time ago. The retirement system lost some money in the market like everybody else did and we're having to raise the rate to make up for that. It does include an 80% COLA increase for retirees. However, that increases so small that there's no cost associated with it because the cost of living has not really increased in that time period. We are recommending the 9.8 rate today and we're looking for approval. Thank you. Other questions from members of court? Thank you. We have a motion by commission march and the chair will second. We're in new discussion on favor. Please say aye aye opposed in a motion is carried 8v we're going to pull that'll be real reposted So be no action on 8v today 8c is to approve the recommended recommended revisions to personnel policy 3.9 sickly Again, what colony folks? to personnel policy 3.9 sickly. Again, we'll call any of those. These revisions that are noted in your book are recommended by the HR department and the personnel policy committee. The intent of these revisions is to give the department some language that will assist them in managing sickly abuse. It's a very difficult thing for departments to manage and that's the intent of the revision today. We are recommending approval. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Marchin. Thank you. The second by Commissioner Coleman. Commissioner Eads, did you have a question? Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, Haney? Motion to scary. I'm glad to see that. Amy, that's good. see that any that's good. And A is approval of the final acceptance of the Nailer Road Culvert Project. This is in precinct one. And for approval. Mr. Mayor Commissioner Coleman, seconded by Commissioner Eans. Do you have a question? Here are no questions. All in favor please say aye. Aye opposed any? Mr. Baskery. 13A is approval and acceptance of Larry Williams's appointment to the building of the committee. 13A is approval and acceptance of Larry Williams's appointment to the building of property committee. This appointment replaces Tommy Jackson's appointment. This is in Commissioner precinct 2. Motion for approval by Commissioner Marchin, seconded by Commissioner Ian's. On favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed to need. Motion to carry. Seconded by Commissioner Eans, on favor, please say aye. Aye, opposed, say aye. Motion to carry, 13b is reappointment of Gloria Massey to the County Child Protective Services Board as a representative of a precinct three, pending CPS approval. Thank you, aye, motion, by Commissioner Eans. Seconded by Commissioner Marchion, on favor, please say aye. Aye, opposed, say aye. Aye. Aye. Opponents, say nay. Motion does carry. 14a is approval of the near local cooperation agreements for property tax collection between Denton County, Texas and one town of Ponder to the Town of Shofy Club. It's recommended by the Denton County Tax Assessor Collector. The chair will move for approval. Seconded by Commissioner Eads. Questions. All in remove for approval. Second and by commissioner Ead's questions. On favor, please say aye. Opposed to the name? Motion is carried 14b is approval of interlocal cooperation agreements for property tax collection between Denton, County, Texas and trophy club municipal utility district. This is referred to as mud number one and for property tax collection into assessment assessments for trophy club public improvement district. This is known as the PID and to trophy club public improvement district number one emergency services is recommended by the Dyncannie tax assessor collector. Chair move for approval. Seconded by Commissioner Marchand other questions. Seconded by Commissioner Marchand other questions. You're none all in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed to any? Motion carries. 14C is approval of the interlocal cooperation agreement for property tax collection. Between Denton County, Texas and Paula Point ISD is recommended by the Denton County Tax Assessor Collector. Shall remove for approval. Seconded by Commissioner Marchand. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed to the name? Motion does carry. 14D. Is approval of the agreement between Treasury law enforcement agencies and local county and state law enforcement agencies for the reimbursement of expenses. Motion approved. Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Marchand. Seconded by Commissioner Eads. Questions? On favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed to the name? Motion does carry. 14e is approval of one. Donation deed from the Razor Investments Limited, the Texas Limited Partnership by the Razor Company and the Texas Corporation, its general partner to Denton County Texas for phase two parcel 15 of the FM 1171 Improvement Project to grant authorization to proceed with the closing and approval for the Denton County Judge's design on necessary closing documents and three direct the Denton County auditor to issue a warning the amount of $641.87 for closing class plus any applicable fees. With funding to come from FM 1171 improvement projects, this is Auditor number 7073609020. This is in Commissioner Pusing 3. Motion by Commissioner Eid, seconded by Commissioner Marchand other questions. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, aye. Motion is carried. 14F is approval of the contract between Glen Thurmond Incorporated and Denton County, Texas for the Roaps and Ranch Road Reconstruction Project in the amount of $3,230,126. So the funding that come from Commissioner Prisnt 4, AAA CIP funds. This is auditor 6175149030. This is Commissioner Prisnt 4. I move for approval. Motion by Commissioner Ead, seconded by Commissioner Marchion. Questions? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, senene. Motion does carry. The lead that takes care of everything except our public hearing, which is scheduled at 10 o'clock. So with that, we'll go on to the executive session. 15A is under Texas Government Code 551.071A. This is consultation with attorney in a closed meeting. When the government bodies seeks the advice of its attorney about pending litigation with regard to a property redemption sale held on February 27, 2007, Steve Mossman didn't kind of tax assessor collector. His name is the third party defendant in this action. Cosgroe and I always stumble on his last name. So Higgin versus Equity Chair, Incorporated versus Steve Mossman, didn't kind of tax the sex collector. This is cause number RT 2007, 0, 0, 249. 15B is under Texas government code 551.072, deliberation regarding real property, closed meeting to deliberate, the purchase or exchange of real property. We're deliberation in an open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the position of the governmental body, in negotiations with the third party regarding the purchase of Texas, I'm sorry, purchase of real property located in Denton County, this is Commissioner Pristink 1. 15C is under Texas Government Code 551.072 deliberation regarding real property, closed meeting to deliberate the purchase of real property. Where deliberation in an open meeting would have a detrimental effect on the position of the governmental body and negotiations with the third person regarding the purchase of real property for county facilities located in a kind of commission for under Texas government code 551.0711A consultation. The attorney in close meeting when the governmental body seeks the advice of its attorney about contemplated litigation. We're going to be claimed by Castro. So hey, again, for alleged damage to real property, this is in Commissioner Prisce, one. With that, we are in executive session. session. In the session under items 15A, B and C there will be no action under 15D. I beg your pardon did I say that wrong? I turned it around under BC and D there will be no action 15A. The chair will move to assign the Denton County District Attorney's Office Civil Division to represent Steve Mossman Denton County Tax Assessor Collector 3rd Party defendant in COS number RT 2007- 0, 0, 249. Style, COSRO, Zahigin versus Equity Share Incorporated versus Steve Mossman didn't kind of tax assessor collector didn't kind of taxes. That's my motion. Seconded by Commissioner Coleman. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed to the name. Motion does carry. The only other thing on our agenda is for a couple minutes early. You want to take a five minute break and come back? Yeah. Let's take a five minute break. It's posted for 10 o'clock. We can start after that, but we really aren't supposed to start before it. So we're going to recess for about five minutes. For A, which is our public hearing on the proposed and county tax rate of 0.2498 per $100 evaluation, which would increase total tax revenues from the properties on the tax roll by 3.16% for the tax year 2009. And to schedule a meeting to adopt the tax rate for Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 1015 AM. In the courthouse on the square in the commission's court room 110 West Hickory, second floor, commission's court room in Denton, Texas. First we need a motion to go into our public hearing. Motion by commission, Marchant, second and by commission or EEDS. All in favor please say aye. Aye opposed any. motion does carry and then we will next call on down the street. Good morning judge and commissioners. I have handouts here for anybody that's interested. It's a copy of the slideshow we're presenting today. This will be the first public hearing we have on our proposed tax rate as you all, our budget process begins in March of each year and it takes us to this point to get to a proposed budget. Two weeks ago, the commissioners court wrapped up the budget process and took a record vote and unanimously are proposing the tax rate that we'll be discussing today. Just for clarification purposes, we wanna make sure everyone understands that the appraisal district is the entity that is statutorily required to appraise property values in Denton County. Think appraisal districts were created and began in 1982. The district is responsible for appraising the value for advalorum taxes, purposes for each taxing unit in the county. Chief appraisal Joe Rogers is listed here as a contact. If anyone has any specific questions about the values appraised on their property. If anyone has any specific questions about the values praised on their property. Truth and taxation requires any time we propose a tax rate that exceeds the effective rate that we have two public hearings on the rate. These have been advertised and posted according to the provisions detailed in the property tax code. That includes a quarter page notice that ran in the Denton Riker Chronicle on Sunday, August the 16th. We also posted the same notice on the main page of our Denton County website on Friday, August the 14th, and it remains posted through September the 1st. We are also required to request from our local free access cable station of the ability to post the same notice. It's to run for 60 second periods five times a day between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. 7 days prior to this first public hearing. Again, that notice have received acknowledgement from charter communication that they started running that notice on Friday, August 14th for us. This is a quick summary of the proposed county tax rate. As you all know our current tax rate is 0.2357 per $100 of taxable value. The effective tax rate this year, it came in at 0.242153. As you know, we're proposing a tax rate of 0.2498. That's currently 1.4 cents less. Or 1.4 cents more than the current rate or just over 3.4 of depending more than the effective rate. The proposed tax rate is 5.95% above the current tax rate or 3.16% above the effective rate. In an effort to explain the effective rate, it's very confusing. I have a chart here that hopefully will help. The effective tax rate is what will provide the tax rate in it, approximately the same amount of revenue that it had in the year before on properties that are taxed in both years. So in last year and this year, there's a small exhibit here that I took from the Truth and Taxation Guideline that shows how the effective rate is calculated. You actually take prior year taxes, less taxes on the property lost this year on the role? As you all know, sometimes when people become eligible for our over age 65 exemption, taxes do drop. Presbyterian hospital and Denton sold to a nonprofit organization that had been counted lost over $300,000 in revenue from just that one hospital this year. And any other personal property that may have been lost. This chart shows the current tax rate versus the rate that we are proposing. You'll see that on a hundred thousand dollar house what we're proposing would cost fourteen dollars and three cents per year or $1.17 per month. And I'll have it shown here in increments of $25,000. And then on a $200,000 house, the rate would be $2.34 per month more. Again, this chart assumes no increase in valuation and the individual property owners taxes will depend on the specific change based on their valuation this year. This is a very similar chart that just compares the effective rate that we just talked about versus the proposed rate. And you'll see in that, on a $100,000 house, compared to our effective rate, it's only 64 cents a month or $1.27 on a $200,000 home. This chart always tells a picture that I think everyone needs to be aware of. This shows the average home in the city of Denton in the previous year, which is tax year 2009. The average value last year on a home in Ditten County was $211,710. You'll see that total taxes were $5,065 on that home. School District taxes of course were 62%. City of Denton was 28% and Denton County was 10%. The next chart shows that same home with the average value of $2,000, $12,370 this year, you'll see that the tax is and the same percentage is still apply. Denton County's proposed tax rate will still be 10% of this property owner's home. This other visual kind of shows you on a monthly tax bill that property underpaste $426 a month and of that $264 is for school taxes $118 for city and $44 for county taxes. $14 for city and $44 for county taxes. I think it's always interesting to look at a 15-year chart. I wanted to show everyone this going back to 1995. You'll see that the rate that we're proposing today is actually less than the rate was in 1995. There are four years on the chart where the tax rate was higher than what's being proposed today. Here's that same chart on a ten-year basis just in a bar chart form so you can see that tax rate has remained fairly consistent over the last 10 years. This is always one of the favorite charts I like to show. It compares the top 10 counties in Texas, that most populated counties. What we do is get their countywide tax rates and add those all up and you'll see that in Denton County we of course have a lowest tax rate. Countywide tax rate of .2498 is what we're proposing. All these other entities have not set their rates yet. We're not familiar with what they're court requested that we add this last year when we were discussing this. It shows our tax rate compared to the total number of employees per 1000 county residents. You'll see not only is didn't county the lowest with our tax rate. We have the lowest number of employees per thousand county residents as well. I know your chart has 11 counties listed. That was just a mistake, but this chart shows the top 10. This is a comparison if you lived in some of our surrounding urban counties around us what your tax bill would be on that same home again valued at $2,230,370. You pay $531 in county taxes. If you lived in Tarrant County, you would pay $1378. Dallas County would pay $1214 and in Cullen County, $704. This is just a chart that shows our revenue summary by function. You'll see that our main source of revenue, of course, is property taxes and Everything else is listed from fees fines auto registration interest earnings etc The factions of the county include all of our public safety organizations county roads and bridges our Judicial and legal system, a debt service which is our long-term debt to pay for road and bridge projects and county facilities, their capital projects, miscellaneous, health and welfare, financial, general administration, and facilities management. This next chart will show you a breakdown of our expenses by function. You'll see that of course the majority of our expenses are for public safety at 32% debt service at 18% bread and bridge is 6% and so on. I think it's important to give you, give the public some idea of what's included in the proposed budget, even though we're talking about the tax rate today, we'll have a public hearing on our proposed budget in a couple of weeks. But I think it's important to explain that we have increased debt service payments this year that's pretty much driving the increase in our tax rate. In fact, the entire increase above our effective rate can be attributed to projects that were approved by the voters in November of 2008. We actually are using some of our new property money that we received this year to help fund these voter approved projects. Health insurance and retirement rates are increasing in the county by over a million dollars. New employees were requested this year for a total of 32 positions. What's in the proposed budget at this point include 10 positions. Five of those being for jail expansion. We have other increases as everyone else does as far as gasoline, utility expenses, building maintenance. We have computer-related software and lease payment increases. As well, no postage is going to increase probably every year. Indigent care. We're going to be members of a water conservation district. But we also, at some other tough choices through the process. We deleted three vacant positions. We transferred six and a half positions to non-tax funded departments to help our general fund budget. And almost everyone of us sitting in the per capita here in Denton County. You'll see that the per capita rate again continues to decline based on our growing population in 2000. We had 2.83 boys per capita, per thousand. And while this budget includes 2.33 employees per 1000 population. With that, we can take any questions or comments from the court members and invite the public for any input they have on the proposed tax rate? Thank you. Are there any questions to members of the court? Go ahead. Just want to make sure that I understand and hopefully the public understands, let me get it from here. That when you're comparing the tax rate with the other counties, that specifically maybe Harris or Dallas or Tarrant County, what we also have to remember is that within those tax rates they have hospital districts or they have college districts that add to that even taking those out of there are we still within the lowest tax rate within the comparison model that you have here. Well I think in some cases you can't really take all of that out because in Denton County we have an Indigent Care Program and they have a hospital district. So I'm not sure it's a real comparison that way. If you do take all of that out, there are some counties that are comparable with just their county rate, but in Dallas and Tarrant County they do both have hospital district rates that take care of their indigent. That has been asked of me. I've showed this in a presentation before and it was brought up to me last last time that you know is that a fair comparison and one of my cities city of Carrollton, of course, is split right down the middle, half of it in Dallas County, half of it in Denton County. Now that's what's the question that came up. Are we really comparing apples to apples? And I just... And I always try to stress and hope everybody understands that this is the countywide tax rate that we're presenting here. So that is all inclusive of the other areas. But we think it's important to show the public if you live in Ditton County. This is what you pay versus if you live in Dallas. Thank you. Are there any other questions from members of court? Is anyone in attendance would like to ask a commissioners part on the proposed tax rate in this public hearing in favor of or opposed to anyone in attendance with a light to the rest commissioners court on the proposed tax rate in this public hearing in favor of or opposed to anyone in attendance who would like to address commissioners court? I am Tim Mangram. Just a couple of questions. One is on the statement here about the increased gasoline expenses. This case prices are actually lower this year than they were in previous year. What's the justification for that part? I mean, gas was basically $4 a gallon last year and it's 250 right now. We actually, this increases in the departmental budgets. We did have some money set aside last year in our contingency fund, but this is money that's been distributed to the departments based on the current price. So we kept the budget down in most of the departments this last year but the ability to move money if needed but this is actually increasing them closer to what we think the rights are going to be for each department. Okay, so then it sounds like it may be more about use than price necessarily. Right. OK. Then the other thing I had a question on was on the, on the, just being that these times that were session that we're in and so forth. A lot of voters in my area are expressing concern about why are we raising taxes in a time when everyone, even though it's by a marginal amount, is demonstrated very well by these graphs and wonderful report you put together here. I'd like to commend the county on that, but just to show nature of the fact that, hey, things are rough, prices are down, why are we going to jack up taxes by any amount? Good question. First, I want to tell you that we are not giving raises across the board to county employees. Every department has taken a cut in some way, shape or fashion. Last November, we had the bond election. Early in her presentation, she showed that the amount above the calculated effective rate is being used to pay debt service that is voter-approved, bonded indebtedness for road projects, building projects, and any amount of the increase over the calculated effective rate goes to service that debt. In promoting the bond election, I think like 19 times in a month and various presentations that I made, I was telling people that worst case scenario we're looking at a penny on the tax rate. We were able to keep it less than that. It's about three looking at a penny on the tax rate we were able to keep it less than that it's it's about three quarters of a penny so that's my justification is it's voter approved bonded indebtedness that we are paying for for roads and projects and anything above the calculated effective rate is going to pay that debt not to give raises not to buy new vehicles or anything else, it's to pay the bondage and debtedness. It sounds like if the, since it is a voter approved, this bondage, this is debt service. We're servicing debt. Right. Is it really an option? I mean, what do we have? We can't default the loans, correct? Well, no, we can't default loans. So not certainly not going to do that. I guess you could cut services in the county and keep it at the effective tax rate. But we thought we'd done a pretty frugal job of coming through the budget and certainly the department heads and elected officials working with our budget director or for the most part pretty frugal in their requests, understanding that everybody, it's tight for everybody. And I think it should be stated too, that to run the county is just like running a business. Our expenses go up too, and you know, you brought up the fuel costs. It's not an increase in price, it is increasing use to your correct. But, you know, our supplies go up too. We have to buy supplies for the employees to use. The cost of everything goes up for us to purchase them, even though we have a great purchasing department that tries to get us the best price on everything. And we do purchasing agreements. And we go through this state on different things. And we go out for bin on stuff to get the best price Bottom line cost go up for the county too. So as as much as you try to rain those things in Only so much can be done. So I feel pretty good about where we ended up on our budget I think the employees were I think the employees were understanding in that they understand the economic times that we're in. And instead of going to G.I. wish we would have gotten to raise people are more inclined to say, I'm real glad to still have a job that pays benefits. That's the times we live in. Commissioner Merchant, did you? It's Mr. Abrams. Mangrim. Mangrim, can you spell that? M-A-N-G-R-U-M. Only because I don't want to miss, miss, pronounce it. Thank you. Also, I think your question also goes, in other words, what was the options that we had this year as far as debt? Right. I guess we could have not sold 104 million dollars worth of bonds to incur that initial debt. What we believed in which if you would look at any municipality or within any other county they will tell you that because of the economy that the money that they are spending on road construction, transportation of capital, that we're getting more bang for a buck in this economic downturn than we would in, was talking with the city manager of Lewisville and city manager Lewisville said that Two years ago they priced a row project at nine million dollars they read bit it again and went back to the contractor and It had decreased down to five million dollars, right because of the economy And so I believe there was a choice made on my part to go ahead and issue the debt because we could get a bigger bang for a buck in this economic downturn and not such a dramatic impact upon the taxpayers within didn't carry. So I hope that was answering a little bit of your question. We could have held off on issuing the debt and probably saved ourselves a tax rate increase that would include that debt. But I believe that it was more prudent at the time that we're doing this to issue that bond debt so we can get again more bang for a buck. Right. Thank you, Commissioner Morsha. Commissioner Eads. It's a perfect example. Term of my contract. Just a perfect example is that what we did this morning on our agenda, you know, we approved a contract with Glenn Thurman and that's the construction of ropes in Ranch Road. And that was for $3.2 million in our cost estimate. We did that last year. We were anticipating 4.9. And so that's just a perfect example of what we did this morning on the agenda paid with bond funds for that we issued in May. And so that we're experiencing savings. And I ponder that same thing. I think all the members of the court did. Ponder, do we go ahead and issue the debt and move forward on these and realizable savings? Knowing that we may hit the right because there's been a decline in some of the property values and assessments. So I think that we're saving money into short term and the long term for the tax payer because we're proceeding forward and building some of these projects at a savings now that then hold it off and then inflation catching up with us and needing any savings we would have realized. I appreciate that and I've heard a very familiar argument which it's very convincing especially coming from our wife. It was on sale honey. Thank you very much. I just had one final question here. Commissioner Marshawn had mentioned about the indigent versus the county hospitals in other areas. And I don't know if we have that, I guess that would be in the budget. Is there a comparison in the budget somewhere that shows how much we spend on health care here in our county versus, let's say, some of the counties where they have the higher tax faces I don't have that information. It's not in our budget document. Okay. That was my last question. Yes, horn. I just wanted to say you know we worked really hard on cutting our budget to be able to absorb the tax increase that we would do for the bond. And I understand you're arguing about, you know, you wouldn't spend it, but it was 25% off. But just for example, Andy Eason, I went through our road bridge budgets with a fine tooth comb and between us we cut at $1.2 million. I'm not sure what a percentage, but it was about what 15, 20% of our budget we cut and anticipation of letting the bonds. And additionally, I reduced the position in my department. So I mean, we've really worked hard to be able to absorb the increase that would come for the selling of bonds. But we knew when we did it that there was probably going to have to pay for it. Much like when you go buy something for the future, you have to pay for it. You can't get road bridge projects without paying for them so it's unfortunate as it may be if you're going to do infrastructure you have to pay for it if you want to pay for it you have to have tax. Okay. Thank you. Just another point I wanted to make sure was clear to you is our overall budget is increasing about $2.9 million countywide and the amount of debt service increased $5.2 million. So just to give you an idea, there were some significant reductions in each department's budget and run bridge precincts one and four made a huge cut and sacrifice in their areas well, but so did all of our other departments. I appreciate the court's efforts to remain physical conservative. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate your being here this morning. Coming out. An upside to all of the debt service that's issued and in the projects that go on is that's job creation in the county too. Well we have not only road construction but we have building construction so that is an upside of it. Is anyone else in attendance with a address commission is courted on the proposed tax rate and have any questions for anyone? Anyone in attendance would like to ask any question on this issue. Okay, let's have a motion to close our public hearing. Motion by Commissioner Marchant, seconded by Commissioner Eads. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposing, aye. Motion does carry. Okay. Okay. The law has changed as to how things have to be specifically stated. So I want to make sure that I do it absolutely correct. At the conclusion of the public hearing, we need to announce the date time and place that the proposed task rate will be adopted. And that is September 8th. First we will have, says here, recommend scheduling the adoption of the tax rate for Tuesday, September 8th at 1015 AM, the courthouse on the square, the commissioners court room 110 West degree, didn't Texas, and an additional quarter page noticeably posted in the Dent Recreconical on our website and on charter communications for your access television channel. I'm stealing Donna's thunder here. Right ahead. Keep going. OK, the proposed budget will be on file in the budget office, the county clerk's office, and the county auditor's office. We'll be posted on the main page of the website by Tuesday, September 1, 2009. Public hearing on the proposed budget will be at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at the Courthouse on the Square Commission's courtroom. An adoption of the budget is scheduled immediately following the public hearing, same date, September 8th. And the adoption of the tax rate is scheduled for adoption at 1015 AM on September 8, 2009. Do we need a vote on that setting the other public hearing that we've already been doing? Already done that. That second public hearing is scheduled for next day at 7 p.m. in the evening to allow citizens that may work during the day to have the ability for input as well. But there's no, the action today is to announce the date time and place that the court will be voting on the tax rate. That is September 8, 2009 and immediately following our public hearing, Tuesday, September 8 at 10 a.m. Hey, we have concluded our business for today. Thank you Donna. Again, do you and all your staff? With that we're adjourned. Everybody have a great day