Monday, March 22, 1999
Shrinking tax base hurting counties and schools
By KEN ELLSWORTH
Senior Staff Writer
Low prices might look attractive at the gas pump to most, but
to school and county officials who are contemplating their 1999
budgets, 90-cent gas looks as pretty as the face of a turkey buzzard.
That’s because oil property valuations, which represent
large portions of area school and county tax bases, have been
predicted to be as much as 40 percent lower than last year.
 “It
makes my stomach sick to think about it,” said Howard County
Judge Ben Lockhart.
Oil and gas property taxes will provide Howard County coffers
with $550,000 less in the next fiscal year than for the present
one. Other related lower valuations might bring the total tax
loss to close to $800,000 subtracted from the current county budget
of $8.6 million.
If that isn’t bad enough, County Auditor Jackie Olson
thinks the following year could add to the dilemma by adding an
additional $700,000 worth of tax losses.
“I hope I am wrong,” Olson said.
County officials have already begun to cut back, hoping to
build reserves for the possible financial crisis. Today, commissioners
will consider, and more than likely approve, cutting county employees’
work week to save 6.5 percent of the payroll. Commissioners will
probably also require county workers to make larger co-payments
for doctors’ visits and raise the amount deducted from employee
wages for insurance.
Those measures and others will drop the next budget to $7.8
million and the following year’s budget to $7.6 million.
The belt tightening is unwelcome to county employees who witnessed
part of the skimpy future last year when commissioners eliminated
the janitorial help and asked courthouse workers to be their own
janitors. But commissioners may believe they have no choice but
to make the cuts.
“I don’t think we’re going to have a fun time
anytime soon. We sure are open to suggestions,” Lockhart
said. “And we’re still working on figuring out what
we can do better.”
Howard County may be losing more money, but Throckmorton County
expects to lose a higher percentage of its income.
“I’m between a rock and a hard place,” said
County Judge Trey Carrington, who may lose $250,000 of the county’s
1.4 million annual budget.
He and the commissioners have no ready solutions.
“When you get it figured out, you tell me,” Carrington
said.
The county has no reserves. Fifty-one percent of its tax income
comes from oil and gas, and because of the long drought, agricultural
valuations are not helping.
With the county tax rate near its legal limit, a good portion
of which supports the hospital, commissioners are in no mood raise
taxes even a little.
Last week, enough voters signed a petition calling for the
historically dry county to go wet for an election to be called.
Part of the justification for that, supporters say, is to strengthen
the tax base.
Scurry County, like all counties dependent on mineral valuations,
will be hit, too, with possible tax losses of $300,000 out of
a $21.9 million budget, but the county is well prepared and has
substantial reserves.
Still, County Judge Ricky Fritz doesn’t like what he sees.
Declining oil and agriculture are causing the population to decline,
which is further eroding the tax base. In 1980, the county tax
base was a whopping $3 billion. Now, it is a comparatively meager
$598 million.
Fritz, who is serving his second term, recalled running for
his first term when there were already indications the population
was in decline.
“I was running against a good, strong opponent, and I
asked a friend his opinion about how my campaign yard signs were
doing in comparison to my opponents. He looked at me and said,
‘It looks like you are third, your opponent is second and
a guy named For Sale is winning in a landslide.’ ”
If oil dependent counties are experiencing financial difficulties,
so are schools.
Snyder school superintendent Gayle Lomax said his district
is expecting $800,000-$950,000 in lost tax revenue. The district
budget this year is $19 million. That is bad, but a declining
student population will more than likely also decrease funding
from the state.
Lomax, echoing Fritz’ opinion concerning population trends,
said Snyder schools have lost about 550 students since 1990 and
is continuing to lose population every year. The district is now
home to 3,000 students.
“I think that is a trend all over West Texas. Oil is not
employing the number of people that it used to and people are
leaving the farm,” Lomax said. “It’s going to be
a hard row to hoe, but we’re not going to throw up our hands
in panic. I know the Snyder people. We do what is necessary and
still offer a good education. We’re going to survive.”
Sweetwater ISD, in comparison, stands to only lose $80,000-$89,000
next year. The loss is not so painful as Snyder’s but still
is plenty painful, said Superintendent Steve Maikell.
“That’s three teacher positions,” he said.
He said the district is losing students related to oil and
agriculture job losses, and that will cause the district’s
state funding to decrease.
But raising taxes to make up for the difference is not a good
remedy, he said.
“Look out there at the farmers and ranchers. They’re
hurting. And local businesses are hurting as well. You just don’t
want to put any more on them,” Maikell said. “But we’re
still going to have school, and it is still going to be a good
place to learn.”
Superintendent Bill McQueary in Big Spring said his district
may lose $363,000.
“We can manage that. But we are worried about other businesses
that are going to suffer and close and not be able to pay their
taxes due to the oil situation. Right now, we’re okay, but
we may be just as bad off as others as businesses close,”
he said.
State Comptroller Carol Keeton Rylander has surveyed state
school districts and estimates that 62 area school districts will
be adversely affected by lower oil and gas evaluations.
Colorado ISD has already annouced cutbacks in personnel and
programs. Breckenridge ISD may come up short about $700,000 compared
with this year’s budget.
Surely one of the hardest hit will be Coahoma ISD in Howard
County, which stands to lose about $500,000 from its annual budget
of $6 million, said interim Superintendent Wayne Mitchell.
“We’ve lost 50 percent of our mineral values, and
every year our ag values go down,” he said. “Our choices
are getting slimmer and slimmer.”
Oil and gas taxes, Mitchell said, account for about 60 percent
of the district’s tax income.
“It’s making us bleed a little, but we don’t
like to bleed that much,” he said. “But local people
who are paying these taxes are hurting even worse.”
Mitchell said he did not believe the state Legislature would
be willing to provide relief for West Texas schools.
Others, however, point to State Rep. Jim Keffer’s effort
to push through a “no harm” bill, that would provide
some relief to schools badly hurt by low oil valuations.
“If Keffer’s bill passes our losses could be minimal,”
said Albany Superintendent Jeri Pfeifer, who expressed optimism.
Keffer said he thinks has a good chance of passing because
East Texas oil producing areas are also affected, increasing the
statewide appeal. But Keffer said his bill was not a long-term
solution.
“It’s a stop-gap measure,” he said.
As far as counties are concerned, however, not even a stop-gap
bill is on the horizon. They are on their own.
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Copyright ©1999,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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