CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Nueces County Judge Connie Scott has been meeting with various elected officials to discuss the county's budget.
That's because the county is facing a multimillion dollar budget shortfall. which could result in employee layoffs and cuts to public services.
"I know a lot of people had presented increased budgets for next year, so they may need to go back to the drawing board," she said.
Scott said she's confident that she and commissioners will work together to solve a potential budget shortfall that could slash the county budget by a third. Currently, she is holding private and informal talks with her fellow elected officials to seek their assistance with the budget situation.
"We're going to work together and find solutions to these problems, but I would say there's nothing that's not up for discussion, every single thing, department, every building," she said.
The budget problems stem from the significant increase in the appraised value of several refineries which were all previously valued at or under a billion dollars. The new appraisals shot up to around the $6 billion mark.
Nueces County Assessor/Collector Kevin Kieschnick said they're having to budget with these new inflated appraisal figures. They are certain that these tax bills will be contested in court leaving the county looking rich on paper but poor in dollars.
"On paper under the current state law it looks like we are going to receive money on $11 billion that we are not going to receive," he said. "So we calculated it down and it brings the tax rates down accordingly. And next year it's probably going to cause the tax rate to shoot right back up to offset that if this does not get fixed."
Kieschnick said he had hoped that state lawmakers would intervene so that the billions of dollars in contested taxes wouldn't have to be included in the county's tax calculations. However, he doesn't think his plea to Austin is going to be granted. The only other alternative is if the appraisal district negotiates a lower tax number with the refineries.
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