Tempers flare during county tax rate debate – talk of layoffs, people losing their homes, charges of ‘fear mongering’

The next Lubbock County budget is either helping people keep their homes by not increasing the tax rate or forcing people to lose their homes because they’ll lose their county jobs after budget cuts. It depends on who’s making the claim.

Monday’s first vote on the budget featured:

  • A failed attempt to set property taxes $2.63 per year higher than the “no-new-revenue” rate.
  • A 3-2 vote in favor of the no new revenue rate.
  • More verbal sparring between County Judge Curtis Parrish and Jason Corley, Precinct 2 commissioner; between Parrish and Cary Shaw, Precinct 3 commissioner; and Corley and a county employee, who hoped Corley is not reelected.

“If we start laying off people in this county, they are going to lose their homes.”

curtis parrish, county judge

Parrish’s proposal fails to get support

Parrish made a motion to keep the tax rate the same from this year into next – 33.4702 cents per hundred, but the motion died for lack of a second…

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