This interview was recorded at the Henderson County Courthouse Annex on Wednesday, Aug. 4.
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Henderson County Judge Wade McKinney opens up this week's podcast with a discussion about the Certified Property Value for the county before moving on to the latest COVID update.
I. Certified Property Value (1:00)
(Early in the podcast, Michael V. Hannigan says Certified Tax Rate when he means Certified Property Value. This discussion is about property value.)
The Certified Property Value was delivered by the Appraisal District to the county last week. According to the report, the market value of Henderson County property is $11.1 billion and the taxable value is about $8 billion.
The value of the property in the county has increased since last year and Judge McKinney talks about three reasons that may happen:
-- More people wanting to move to Henderson County, driving up the cost of housing.
-- People converting exempt property -- such as land used for agriculture -- into taxable property, like housing.
-- Pressure from Austin to increase values.
The property value is important because it is one-half of the equation determining property taxes. The other half is the tax rate.
The county is currently going through the budget process, which Judge McKinney describes.
"We run through, line by line," he said. "There are about 7,000 lines in the county budget and we touch each one of those."
In the coming weeks, Commissioners Court will work to set the tax rate for 2022. Those meetings will be announced on the county website at www.henderson-county.com.
II. COVID Update (22:53)
As of the time of this recording, there were 280 hospitalized COVID patients in the Trauma Services Area (TSA) that includes Henderson County. The rate at which hospitalizations are increasing is as fast — or faster — than at any time during the pandemic.
- Reminder: Texas is separated into 22 regions called Trauma Service Areas, or TSAs, for hospital data. Henderson County's region is designated TSA-G and includes Tyler/Longview. TSA-G includes about 960,000 people.
As hospitalizations increase, staffing has become a problem for hospitals in the region.
"Staffing today is much more difficult to get," County Judge McKinney said. "Your rural areas are really feeling that stress."
Judge McKinney said he is hearing from the medical community that the majority of those being hospitalized are unvaccinated.
The good news is that vaccinations in Henderson County are increasing.
Judge McKinney also discusses the recent executive order from Gov. Greg Abbott and the fact that the county really can't do much in response to the COVID increase.
"The last order was a real cleanup of all the previous ones," he said. "Local government, and any form of local government, is barred from taking any of the previous options that were available, being a mask or vaccination or those type of things."
NEWSLETTER:
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