For the first time in over two decades, Kendall County expects to maintain a balanced budget next fiscal year.
“We’ve come a long way,” Judge Shane Stolarczyk told members of the Kendall County Commissioners Court Monday, during the first of several planned budget meetings.
“When we first sat down, we were at a $6.7 million budget deficit in January 2023 and heavily relied on reserve balance,” Stolarczyk said, having been sworn in on Jan. 1, 2023.
“In three short years, we’ve gotten to ... where we won’t need to rely on reserve balance to maintain our operations.”
Included in the budget is a 2% raise for all non-elected county employees, four new positions related to creation of the 498th District Court in October, four full-time paid firefighters (two in Comfort, two in Bergheim), one addition to the EMS staff and a new Road and Bridges crew leader.
Last year, Stolarczyk said, the county needed nearly $7.3 million of its reserve fund to balance the budget.
“This year, we don’t need any. In fact, if we follow my recommendations, we’ll have a balance of about $23 million,” he said.
The balanced budget has been made possible, the judge said, based on several factors.
An increase in home values is expected to bring in more than $2.7 million new dollars in revenue in 2025-26, as compared to the current fiscal year ($46,3456,032 expected this year, and an estimated $49,061,392 next year.)
Stolarczyk said the county handled several large, one-time purchases this year that are not recurring costs.
“And all of our department heads and elected officials are running their operations with fiscal responsibility, and customer service at the forefront,” he said. “It’s the result of reduced spending and good financial decisions.”
This was the first county budget meeting, so commissioners had not heard several of the judge’s proposals — such as a stipend for 28 night-shift sheriff’s officers and eight FTOs (field training officers).
“We have a very solid foundation that gives the citizens what they want, and also takes care of our employees, giving them what they want,” he said.
Another benefit of maintaining a balanced budget and a healthy reserve fund is potential clout with the Texas Department of Transportation when it comes to road project funding.
“When you do a big road project, the state is going to want some buy-in from the county,” he told commissioners Monday. “We will have that buy-in via our reserve balance, to ... get the projects we want, in my opinion,” he said.
The budget, he said, reflects an attitude of fiscal responsibility shared among all county department heads and elected officials.
“We’ve relied on our department heads and other elected officials to make sacrifices and cuts to start whittling down our budgets, with the ultimate goal of balancing the budget,” he said. “Our citizens expect high-quality service, and this provides for that.
“This is ... a fiscally responsible budget,” the judge added.
County budget workshops continue June 12, 16, 17 and 18 before leaping into July toward August’s eventual final budget approval.
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