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With a focus on supporting law enforcement, Smith County commissioners on Tuesday voted to pass the fiscal year 2022 budget, which includes no change to last year’s tax rate.

The budget for the fiscal year 2022 equals a total expenditure of about $122.2 million. With its passing on Tuesday, it will go into effect on Oct. 1 and run until the end of September 2022.

The theme of the fiscal year 2022 budget is “In the Blue,” to show Smith County’s support for law enforcement, Smith County Judge Nathaniel Moran said. The salaries for law enforcement are set to increase overall. For example, starting pay for an entry-level detention officer will go from $33,620 annually to $41,500.

Moran said that Smith County loves and respects their law enforcement and wanted to make this clear through supporting them.

“These moves are intended to attract and retain the very best throughout our law enforcement offices,” Moran said.

Commissioners approved a total tax rate of 33.5 cents per $100 evaluation. The fiscal year 2022 maintenance and operations tax rate will be 31.0465 cents per $100 evaluation. The court also approved the fiscal year 2022 debt service rate as 2.4535 cents per $100 evaluation.

The 2022 budget will raise more total property taxes than last year’s budget by $2,981,584 or 4.81%. Out of the total amount, $1,364,765 is tax revenue that will be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year, according to the Smith County budget.

Moran thanked both those a part of the court and the public who were a part of the budget process this year. Throughout the summer, county officials work hard to create the proposed budget and be transparent about the process.

From the first budget workshop, there was about seven weeks’ time for the public to provide input and direction for what they wanted to see happen.

Moran said even after filing the proposed budget in early August, public hearings were still held for it along with proposed tax rates.

While during the budgeting process the county was running at a deficit of about $1.4 million, Smith County commissioners were able to make it back to an even balance with no deficit, Moran said.

Since the budget wasn’t filed with the county clerk until Tuesday there were some minor changes, he said.

These changes include an $85 million expenditure added for electronic pay stub services to move away from paper, $50,000 for increase contribution to the juvenile maintenance fund to build the fund for large maintenance expenditures in the coming decade and three small cleanup items related to payroll for longevity pay and professional fees.

In total, these changes equaled $101,000 in additional expenditures not in the original proposed budget.