COUNTY APPROVES BUDGET - HISTORIC NO NEW REVENUE TAX RATE SET

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By Hannah Barber,

During the Navarro County Commissioners Court meeting held on August 25, 2025, a variety of topics were discussed, with particular emphasis on the county’s fiscal management and record preservation initiatives.

A public hearing was conducted regarding the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Budget, leading to the approval and adoption of the budget.

Another public hearing was held addressing the 2025 tax rate, which was approved at a rate of .4197. Commissioner Eddie Moore emphasized this point to attendees, stating, “Remember, this is just for the county. This is not for your ISD or college. This is just 18% of your tax burden that the county levies.”

Commissioner Moore continued, “This is the first no new revenue tax rate, since 2014. This is the lowest we could go and still fund the county.”

Sherry Dowd, the county clerk, shared her 2025 archival plan. This ongoing initiative, spanning from 2015 to the present, aims to leverage new legislation designed to preserve archived records by implementing an archive fee on each filed or recorded document. The revenue generated from this fee will be dedicated solely to archival efforts. Most of the county clerk’s permanent records are paper-based and are regularly accessed by the public. These records are susceptible to theft, damage, and deterioration over time. To ensure their preservation without additional cost to the county, an archive fee will be added to cover microfilming of these documents. The plan also includes space-saving measures, such as reprinting documents larger than legal size onto legal-sized paper during the preservation and restoration process. For the 2025-2026 period, the focus is on digitizing official public records from 1836 to 1974, including both indexes and images, which will be uploaded into the Tyler Eagle system. This effort will follow the completion of the Historical Archive Project currently underway by Kofile.

The documents will be processed and indexed by US Imaging, continuing the work from last year’s project.

Other matters discussed were:
Chris Woolsey was nominated to serve as the representative in charge of the Navarro County General Fund and Road & Bridge for the Navarro County Appraisal District Board of Directors.
Darrell Cobb was nominated to serve as the representative overseeing Flood Control on the Navarro County Appraisal District Board of Directors.
Texas A&M AgriLife introduced the 4-H Healthy Texas Youth Ambassadors of Navarro County.