HENDERSON COUNTY–At the March 11 Henderson County Commissioners’ Court meeting, the court was told that three emergency services districts (ESDs) around Cedar Creek Lake will present a voter proposition for a tax increase during the May 3 election.
Those ESDs are No. 1 (based in Trinidad), No. 2 (based in Payne Springs) and No. 4 (based in Tool).
After being asked by Precinct 2 Commissioner Scott Tuley to “refresh us” about the ESDs listed on the slate of area entities for which the county will contract to conduct their elections, County Election Administrator Paula Ludtke said, “The emergency service districts reached out to me, they’re all represented by a firm and they are proposing a tax increase in theirs. I can read the proposition, if you want to.”
“No, that’s fine,” Tuley responded. Continued Ludtke, “But it’s an increase in their tax rate.”
Precinct 4 Commissioner Mark Richardson remarked that the three ESDs “came in as rural fire protection, originally.” According to Sec. 775.026 of the Texas Health and Safety Code titled “Conversion of Rural Fire Prevention Districts to Emergency Services Districts,” the subtitle says “(e)ach rural fire prevention district created under former Chapter 794 is converted to an emergency services district operating under this chapter.”
County Judge Wade McKinney continued that thought. “All three of those are capped at the 3 cents (per $100 property tax valuation) of the original rural fire prevention districts, and to get above that cap, they have to hold the referendum. ESDs, of course, are capped at 10 cents, automatically.”
The other interlocal agreements for the county to conduct their May 3 election include the cities of Eustace, Brownsboro, Mabank, Seven Points, Gun Barrel City and Chandler, along with the Athens, Eustace, Mabank and Kemp independent school districts.
Later in the meeting, the court approved accepting ESD No. 4’s 2023-24 sworn annual financial statement in accordance with state law, for filing purposes only. According to McKinney, “They have caught us up. They were one of the ones (ESDs) that were three years behind for ’21, ’22, ’23, and this is their ’23 that would’ve been due in ’24, so they’ve got us all four (statements) now. So this gets them up to date. Last week, we did ESD 6 (Lake Palestine), which was for this current year. This one will be for this current year, as well.”
The ones remaining, according to McKinney, are ESDs 2 (Payne Springs), 5 (Brownsboro) and 10 (Eustace). “Those are the final ones…,” he trailed off while moving his outstretched hands apart.
Richardson noted another date coming up in April that “you’re supposed to report your (financial) transparency (documents) to the Comptroller’s Office, and a lot of them (ESDs) haven’t been doing that, and it’s a $2,000 fine.”
Stated Precinct 1 Commissioner Wendy Spivey, within whose precinct ESD No. 4 (Tool) lies, “I’m glad that they’re finally in compliance with House Bill 3764.”
Responded a nodding McKinney, “Amen.”
In other business, the court:
• Approved the 2024 Racial Profiling Report from the Henderson County Fire Marshal’s Office, for filing purposes only, which Fire Marshal Laura Good said includes an exemption because her office does not have a traffic stop policy.
• Approved purchasing items for the Healthy County Program incentives costing $423.75, which Court Coordinator Angie Goggans said consists of water bottles with sports towels to entice more participation in the county employee health program, which she said had 24 drawing entries as of March 11.
• Approved copier renewal contracts with Xerox.
• Approved a right-of-way permit for Brightspeed to install fiber-optic cable along County Roads 3105 and 3403 (Precinct 3) and County Road 3411 (Precinct 4), in the Lake Palestine area.
• Approved a right-of-way permit for Brightspeed to install fiber-optic cable along County Roads 4201, 4202 and 4307, located in Precinct 4, also in the Lake Palestine area.
• Approved paying fiscal year 2025 bills of $566,873.25.
• Approved a request for an Appendix U county subdivision regulation for SOCO Cattle Company on County Road 2507, located in unincorporated Precinct 2.
• Heard an announcement from McKinney that Mark Hannon has resigned as chairman of the Henderson County 9-1-1 Communication District board as one of the court’s two slots appointed to the six-member board because he has moved to another area, saying anyone showing interest in being appointed should contact a county commissioner or the county judge’s office.