(Seguin) – Guadalupe County officials have begun to list out the wants and needs of the county as they set out to prep it for its growing future. In preparation of its upcoming 2022 fiscal year budget, the county leaders on Tuesday met to discuss and prioritize those needs and wants during a special workshop.
By laying out his own priorities and hearing those of other commissioners, Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher says he believes it provides him better direction in moving forward with upcoming budget meetings. He says from there, the county can better navigate further discussions with those at all department levels.
Among those priorities discussed during the workshop was salaries for county employees. Kutscher says the court discussed whether there were potential ways in which to ensure folks are being fairly compensated for their work while still remaining fiscally responsible.
“We took a conservative approach to our budget with the uncertainty of the impact of COVID. With business closures, with people having to stay home all those things, we did not give a raise so to Commissioner (Drew) Engelke’s point, that was one thing put on top of the list just to try to look at longevity pay for county employees just try to take care of the people that we have that have taken care of us at the county but also made sure that services were provided to the public every single day throughout this pandemic without total closure of county services. There were times when we closed county buildings as far as accessibility to the public but there was never a time other than the snowstorm that basically we closed the county and said we are all going to stay home. There were county employees here every day making sure, that services were provided to the public,” said Kutscher.
Transportation also remained high on the list of priorities. Kutscher says transportation is one of those key components for any growing community.
“Transportation funding, right now we have a submitted project to the MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) where we will use some of the funds that are already committed and passed the budgets to be able to say that we are going to match some of those required dollars but I’m truly optimistic. I believe that project will happen. Whether it does or doesn’t should be an irrelevant point on how we move forward in the budgeting process. I think we should continue to commit funds dedicated to transportation projects whether they be for AFA (Advance Funding Agreements) with TxDOT or additional MPO matching dollars to help leverage our position with cities where we have major roadways that need to be upgraded,” said Kutscher.
Kutscher says thankfully, county leadership has always kept capital projects at the forefront of any short- or long-range planning. He says the acquisition of land is vital to the heartbeat of any potential to grow.
“Again, we talked about capital projects. Once, we get through with our current list of projects which I believe will take another 24 months, I think we should be looking hard now at the infrastructure plan and site layout on the 134 acres. We haven’t talked today about fire departments. I know we’ve talked about them extensively. I think we have an opportunity on a couple of county owned facilities, already owned properties, to potentially look at fire stations in the future whether that be for county personnel, volunteer personnel or ESDs (Emergency Services District) later on. I also believe there should be something we really look at in this budget and that is the potential purchase of additional property in specific locations for county facilities and it may include fire stations,” said Kutscher.
This past year has also unveiled greater support for another building project believed to be important to the county – a building that Kutscher says can really make a difference for those in the county.
“I know we’ve talked previously, and I’ll know we will talk more later but potentially either accepting a donation of property or looking at the purchase of a property for a county expo center or event center
that will be beneficial not only to the county for rental space and economic development — potentially partnering with a hotel or convention center but also support local issues like our county youth show, other non-profits that have the need for a facility like that but also, there’s a real shortage of a large-scale center or complex like that in our county. We witnessed that trying to put together all the mass vaccine sites or pod sides — point of dispensary sites. We we’re having to go to school parking lots to try to set up
drive-throughs because that was the only location in the county sufficient enough to handle thousands of cars. We found out we had a real shortage on storage facilities for emergency supplies and the list just goes on and on, but I wanted to lay that out with the court to just say ‘hey, keep that in the back of your mind. Do we need property in the future for specific county needs? As we see growth happen more and more, this land is not only going up in price but it’s becoming scarcer. I think we took the right steps with the 134 acres at the right time and at the right location and at a very very good price. But, if we wait until we need it, it’s not going to be there or we won’t be able to afford it. I’m not saying we should go get crazy but it’s just something to keep in the back of my mind as we move forward,” said Kutscher.
There was no action taken on any of these issues during the budget workshop. Kutscher says the list of priorities drawn was, again, only the start of conversations for the budget.
“I think we’ve done a very good job being conservative, finding that balance of trying to save taxpayer money but also be prepared for growth and I think in some areas, we are going to have to step more
outside of our comfort zone to be prepared for what we’ve been doing. It’s just because we are changing so much. We just want to make sure those changes are as good as they possibly can be,” said Kutscher.
Now while many of these priorities may not make the cut for the 2022 budget, Kutscher says their value could still remain important for the county.
He says if they are not tackled this year, then they could possibly be put on the back burner for the following year.