Members of the group said “the purpose of last week’s hearing was to make sure the County would have the estimated $1.9 million in cash available for taxpayer refunds if a future tax rate rollback election is successful (refunding tax rate difference between what taxpayers were billed versus what should have been billed).  The County argued there was no “irreparable harm” caused by continuing to collect the higher tax rates and comingling this $1.9 million with other County funds based on the County Judge’s sworn testimony that there would be plenty of funds available to pay future refunds due to having about $5 million currently.”

The members said “with the County Judge’s promise that cash will be readily available without harming the County, it’s now okay to focus on the main issue of the tax rate rollback election where we are confident the court will agree that the County is required by state law to schedule the rollback election.  The hearing was also good because the County Elections Administrator Roy Schmerber acknowledged under oath that the County’s January 9, 2017 Resolution declaring the rollback petition invalid was based on not having enough signatures as calculated without excluding “S” suspense voters.  The Texas Secretary of State’s Office has already confirmed that the Texas Election Code requires “S” suspense voters to be subtracted, so if the state law had been followed then the petition should have been valid.” 

The group says that the County has received around $815,000 in additional sales tax payments for property tax relief from the Comptroller in the first four months of the year which were required to be passed on to taxpayers for tax relief, but the County has instead been using it to pay for a 38% increase to its Maintenance & Operations budget.  “The tax rate rollback petition has always been valid, but Commissioners Court’s insistence on denying taxpayers’ right to vote on a reckless political decision to divert voter approved funds shows they believe they are above the law and voters.”