Issues > Parker County's use of Willow Park Sales Tax
On this page: Issue Summary, Journal of events; Research
Latest update: Monday, 03 October, 2022
Tags: #Finance
THIS IS AN ACTIVE ISSUE. BOOKMARK AND CHECK BACK OFTEN.
Summary
(Sources and documents included in Journal and FAQ below.)
During the 13 September 2022 Council Meeting, Council Greg Runnebaum initiated the issue of the "Robin Hood" sales taxes.
Thirty percent (30%) of Willow Park sales taxes -- Sales Tax Collections (through September 2022 -- are remitted the Parker County Commissioners.
Although all cities in Parker County remit a portion of their sales tax to Parker County Commissioners, very little of these funds are used to benefit cities.
Research
- Texas Taxes
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Overview of Local Taxes in Texas, Prepared for the Senate Committee on Finance November 2002
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All sales taxes, both state and local, are collected by the retailer or other entity providing the taxable good or service and remitted to the comptroller, either monthly, quarterly, or annually, depending on the volume of transactions. The comptroller then remits to each local jurisdiction its share of sales tax collections for the period.
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Sales Tax
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Comptroller of Texas > Taxes >
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City of Willow Park > Departments > Finance > Comptroller Tax Allocation Data > Sales Tax Collections (through September 2022)
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Journal
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Willow Park Council Greg Runnebaum sent an open records request to the Park County Commissioners concerning compensation for the Commissioners.
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2022 compensation broken down by salary, auto allowance, longevity pay, any other allowance or benefit;
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Receipts for vehicles purchased in the past 5 years for use by Commissioners in precincts 1 — 4, and County Attorney;
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Receipts for Parker County fuel used by Commissioners 1-4, and County Attorney;
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Documentation for Commissioners precincts 1 -4 and County Attorney showing vehicles paid for by the county are only used for official business;
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Documentation showing Commissioners' in precincts 1 -4 and County Attorney's time away from office for past year and documentation showing time on the clock for county business.
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Attached in .pdf. is the Parker County Commissioners reply to Council Runnebaum's questions
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13 September 2022 Council Meeting
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Council Comments. Minutes: Councilman Runnebaum thanked city council and staff regarding the increase of sales tax revenue. He also stated that 30% of the sales tax revenue goes to Parker County, and that the City of Willow Park has yet to see any benefits from the county of the funds received from the city. Councilman Runnebaum continued that the Commissioners have recently given themselves a substantial raise over $17K including auto allowances over $20K. He stated he will be looking into this issue further and there will be more discussion about it later.
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Council meeting video at time stamp 39:42 Transcript:
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I want to thank staff; when we saw our numbers of sales tax for the last past fiscal year, [it was] something around $1.7 million. When I started on Council about eight years ago it was around $250K to $300K so we've grown significantly since then. It's because of investment by the citizens in our water and sewer, and so I want to thank everybody for that and it's really going to help us going forward.
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However, 30 percent of that [sales tax] money goes to the county, and the county has done zero, zero, not one penny to help this city with that investment, and they're getting all the benefits of it. And so that's problem number one.
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Problem number two I couldn't believe when I ... saw it... we have County Commissioners that voted themselves huge pay raises - huge, $17+K increase in salary this year for every one of them. And some are getting auto allowance increases of over $20K.
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Since 2020, Commissioner One salary alone increased 44%, Commissioner Two 45%, Commissioner Three 26%, and Commissioner Four 27%. So by the time you add all this up the County Commissioners have awarded themselves compensation and increases 60% to 70% from what I calculate. Huge! ...
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One other thing to be aware of is that 30% of sales tax, we've invested in that as Citizens. We're paying 28 cents now -- after this week when they approve their budget -- so 28 cents per $100 [of property value?]. That $580K that went to the county equates to about nine cents per hundred, if that were at the ad valorem tax. Next year that number is probably going to increase to over $700K. so we're going to be paying about 40 cents per hundred to the county, which is way above anything in the county outside city limits. And every other city in this county has got the same problem and it unacceptable.
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