Smith County Judge Nathaniel Moran speaks April 12 at the State of the County Address at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler.

The upcoming Smith County budget likely will have a theme of staying the course.

That’s according to County Judge Nathaniel Moran, who says that’s his priority with the expected priorities and challenges in fiscal year 2022-23.

“We set a lot of these priorities four of five years ago, and the key to good governance is just steadily staying the course over time,” he said.

Making significant improvements is done by working on areas over a period of time and not taking “our eye off the ball” — it isn’t all done at once, he said.

The draft budget will be presented June 28 to commissioners, where Moran said he will “set out what we call kind of the big rocks.” This is a time for him to show the court what he has come up with and begin a discussion that will continue through the summer.

After presenting the draft budget, department heads and others will be given the opportunity to make a presentation to commissioners to advocate for items that would like in the spending plan.

From the time of the first workshop to the adoption date, officials and the public will have about six to eight weeks to discuss and advocate for topics, he said.

The budget presented at the workshop will be “a working draft — it’s a living document,” Moran said, adding that the plan likely will change after discussions.

As of now, Moran said the four likely priority areas of the upcoming county budget are the new 475th District Court, law enforcement staffing, road and bridge funding and the clerk pay scale.

With the 475th being a new court, it is going to be a large part of the budget, Moran said. It takes a lot to run a court, including more personnel such as clerks, contract attorneys, district attorney’s office staff and more.

A large focus of the 2021-22 budget was increasing pay for jail staff. This year, a planned focus area is staffing on the law enforcement side. Moran said that’s less about pay scale and more about making sure the county has the right number of positions to take care of residents’ needs.

Road and bridge funding will continue to be a focus, with an end goal to get at least 5 cents or more of the existing tax rate dedicated to this area. Funding was increased by 25 cents in the 2021-22 budget, Moran said.

A “significant” transfer of money from the county’s general reserves to the Road and Bridge Department is anticipated to help fund the remainder of the Road and Bridge Bond package, Moran said. In November, voters approved Phase 2 of the road and bridge package valued at $45 million, but the anticipated cost of the three-year project is $56 million.

Before the election, voters were told the remaining cost of the project would be paid for out of general reserves in order to keep the tax rate down.

Moran said raising the pay scale for clerks is another planned priority. He said he believes this is an area the county is behind in, and the pay for clerks needs to be increased to ensure retention and recruitment.

Federal relief funding has allowed the county to purchase items, such as safety vehicles for about $2.2 million, without having to go through the normal budgeting process.

The use of the federal money allows the county ease some local tax burden, he said.

“We have used (the federal funding) appropriately and been able to use it in a way that has saved local taxpayer dollars,” Moran said. “Now, all of it’s taxpayer dollars. No matter whether it comes from the federal government or local, we know it’s tax dollars, and we’re gonna be good stewards of it.”

While it can be used now, Moran said it is important to “keep an eye” on this funding because it will not always be there, and the expenditures that can be made with it now will have to be reintegrated back into local revenue sources.

Moran also said sales tax revenue is “very strong” and will help to offset some inflation seen across the board. Every product and contract the county is paying for are more expensive.

“We’re going to do our best to keep the tax rate the same or to reduce it — we’re definitely going to do that,” he said. “The sales tax revenue helps us do that.”

Moran said he also expects the county will set back additional contingency funds for unexpected expenses relating to inflation.

“We’re going to try to keep (the tax rate) as low as possible for folks, because we know that inflation is still impacting a lot of families — we’re very cognizant of that,” he said.

• 9:30 a.m. June 28: Present draft budget and all-day budget workshop followed by commissioners court meeting.
• July 26: Budget workshop held after regularly scheduled commissioners court meeting at 9:30 a.m.
• 9:30 a.m. Aug. 9: Commissioners to discuss tax rate.
• Aug. 15: Deadline to file proposed budget with County Clerk’s Office.
• 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Aug. 23: Public hearings on proposed budget and tax rate will be held.
• 9:30 a.m. Sept. 6: Public hearing will be held on proposed budget and tax rate and vote to adopt budget.