Post rollback defeat Scurry Co. leaders already working to justify more tax increases

Scurry County’s Commissioner Terry Williams is already posting piffle on Facebook to justify even more spending and tax increases now that his crew scared voters into voting against a tax rollback. Williams admits there is no desire by commissioners hold the line on taxes when he wrote: “We all want lower or at least slower rising property taxes.” [Emphasis added.]

Williams is also attempting to justify even more big spending in coming years by claiming that the reason for all is “unfunded/underfunded mandates” from legislators. That bit of nonsense is right out of the Texas Association of County’s talking points for the dumb.

Mandates from the state didn’t put Scurry County in the country club golf course business, Austin didn’t mandate the fancy break room at the courthouse or any of the other big spending programs the court threatened to cut if the rollback passed.

Legislators in Austin did not mandate Scurry County commissioners, Terry Williams included, grow spending so much each year that they spent millions of their reserve funds until there weren’t any more to spend. Austin didn’t tell commissioners to sue the county’s largest taxpayer either.

Williams then misleads the public by telling them “the legislature lowered the county’s revenue cap from 8% to 3.5% going forward.”

Mr. Williams, there is not a “revenue cap,” the 3.5% simply gives voters a say if you again pass a big tax increase and it only covers existing property tax revenue, not new or improved property or other revenue sources. Voters approved your over 8% property tax increase for this year’s budget so why do you think it is a “cap” on revenue?

A cap means a maximum, the law doesn’t set a maximum, it simply requires you to get voter approval – and don’t worry, you can lie and scare them all to death next year – again.