Angelina County Judge Wes Suiter delivered the state of the county address at the First Friday Luncheon hosted by Angelina County Chamber of Commerce at Crown Colony Country Club in Lufkin today.

Suiter, who is County Judge for the Commissioners Court in Angelina County, announced that the counties’ 32 elected or mandated positions will have a $23.4 million revenue budget for 2017.

Suiter said that of the taxes collected, 73 percent will be dedicated to the general fund, 15 percent to roads & Bridges, and 3-4% County and Cities Health District.

From there, Suiter outlined that 41 percent of the general fund is allocated to law enforcement and maintaining the county jail, and 27 percent is allocated to general administration with the remainder split between judicial and prosecution and public health and welfare.

According to Suiter, the tax rate for Angelina County has risen slowly from 2009, when it dropped to about .41 cents per person. Since then, it has risen slowly to its current rate of .4618 cents, risen slowly to current .4618 rate, “a rate that it needs to stay to provide current services.”

“You can say, ‘Is that good, is that bad’, you know,” Suiter said. “With the loss of jobs and industry we’ve had here in the county, it puts more of a burden on property owners. There’s been a shift of the tax burden from industry and the tax base goes to the property owner.  So, it’s a balancing act, and its hard. The commissioners’ court, these guys out here work tremendously hard, on the county budget to provide the services the residents demand with the budge we have.”

Of the 12 counties in the Deep East Texas Counties of Government, Angelina County ranks next to last in taxes per capita, according to Suiter. In contrast, Angelina is also the most populated county in the district.

“The increase in the counties around is due to loss of oil and gas mineral rights, decline in industry,” Suiter said. “A lot of those people came to Angelina county and the industry is not here. We’re losing jobs so they have to raise their tax rate to continue to provide the same services they have always provided. We’ve been fortunate here in Angelina County that our sales tax rate has held up, which has been that way for the last nine years.”

Suiter also showcased projects in the area, highlighting the waste management facility on Highway 58 that has 22 acres that were recently closed. The project cost $3.5 million and will need to be maintained for 30 years, monitoring the methane gas and settling as well as the flare system that burns constantly to keep the methane levels down. Six more wells that burn the methane will need to implemented in the future, Suiter said.

The Angelina County Airport is currently undergoing a $2.4 million project.

“When we finish this project all the air worthiness will be complete; it should last another 20-25 years,” Suiter said, “Every runway, every taxi, every ramp is going to be touched in some form or fashion.”

The plans improve drainage and will include tentative planning for additional hangers.

Cassels Boykins Bike Trail has begun implementation with an Austen-based company preparing the seven miles of trail. “There’s a big demand for bike trails across the country. They come from other states,” Suiter said. The crew, which started clearing trails in October, moves about 500-800 feet per day. Some of the trails are completed. Two bicycle stations were donated by the County and Cities Health District’s Advantage Angelina health initiative program. One will be at the head of the trail, and the other will be located in a loop, along with a picnic table and small rest area.

New projects for the county include working with a Korean company that is trying to acquire the plans and land from previous developers to create an electronic generating plant. According to Suiter, a decision will be made later this month, and if it is approved, construction could begin as early as June.

Other new projects include the Davey Crocket Paddling Trail, which will also be receiving some much needed attention, Suiter said.

“There are three locations currently to put in and take out (Hwy 94, Holly Bluff, and Hwy 59), none of which are in Angelina county,” he said. “There’s a lot of people involved. We’ve got myself, county judge and commissioners from Trinity and Polk counties, Texas Department of Transportation and Texas Parks and Wildlife are involved. U.S. Forest Service is involved at Holly Bluff. We have to bring all these people together to make it work.”

The project will add picnic tables and rest areas, kiosks with a map and key information as well parking under the overpass, and updating the put in/take out areas that have been heavily affected by flooding.

“We’re going to go ahead and proceed with starting at Highway 94 and progressing to Highway 59,” Suiter said. “We have a lot of interest and a lot of calls on canoe and kayak trails. We hope this will generate some revenue with folks that want to sell or rent canoes. We’re trying to provide some recreational opportunities for people in our county, in surrounding counties and our state.”

Suiter also said that the unprecedented flooding at the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016 has caused $1.5 million in damages. The county is working with FEMA and the state to begin rebuilding roads and bridges affected by the flooding.

This week marks the end of the first month of the legislative session. Senate committees are beginning to hold hearings and the Capitol is buzzing with constituent groups and association visits.

Here are five things happening at your Capitol this week:

1. State of the State

On Wednesday, at a joint session of the Texas Senate and House, Governor Abbott gave the State of the State address. He began by sharing that Texas has remained “exceptional” and expressed optimism that Texas’ economy, even with the recent oil downturn, continues to be strong and is the 10th largest in the world. We are also number two in the nation for the number of Top 500 companies in our great state.

The Governor laid out the emergency items in his budget, which included $500 million to improve and overhaul child protective services and ensure we are protecting the most vulnerable children of our state. He also shared a priority to ban sanctuary cities in Texas and his intention to maintain $800 million, which was allocated last legislative session, in spending on border security. His other emergency items included calling for a convention of states to amend the U.S. Constitution and a renewed effort to address ethics reform in the state.

2. Sanctuary Cities

As I mentioned above, Governor Abbott has added the ban of sanctuary cities in Texas to his list of emergency items. Senator Charles Perry has filed SB 4, which would ban entities, such as cities, counties and colleges, from implementing policies to refuse to enforce federal immigration laws. Entities would be denied state grant funds, if their law enforcement agencies failed to honor requests from Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to hand over immigrants in custody for possible deportation. There is also a top-down provision in the bill, which means that an entity in violation, could lose their state grant funds and cause every entity under them to lose their funds as well.

3. Small Schools Funding

This week, Representative Trent Ashby and I filed SB 678 and HB 1390, to correct the formulas which fund certain small schools at a lower level. Currently, if a school has an average daily attendance of 1,600 and covers less than 300 square miles, they receive a smaller portion of state funds than a district with the same attendance which covers more than 300 square miles. This bill will alleviate this practice and provide an equal funding formula for all schools in Texas. With an equal multiplier, many schools will be provided additional funding, which will go a long way in helping to improve the education of our students.

A change in the funding formula will affect approximately 450 schools across the state of Texas. This legislation would allow communities the option of maintaining local governance of their school board without having to work around a punitive formula.

4. Eminent Domain

Since entering the Senate, I have fought for the rights of private property owners. During the 81st Legislative Session, I sponsored the Landowner’s Bill of Rights to guarantee property owners receive a complete and easily understandable description of their rights when facing the prospect of eminent domain. Because of this, I was happy to co-author Senator Schwertner’s SB 626, SB 627 and SB 628, all bills which address eminent domain in our state.

SB 626 will help to strengthen private property rights by providing more information to landowners and require there be certain disclosures for condemning entities. SB 627 will update the Landowner’s Bill of Rights to explain to landowners their right to negotiate survey terms and recover damages caused by the survey. SB 628 helps to reinforce the ability of a property owner to buy back condemned land by defining what information a condemning entity must show in order to keep the condemned land and prevent buy back.

5. Superintendents at the Capitol

The Texas Association of School Administrators held their midwinter conference in Austin this week. My staff and I had the opportunity to attend two of the Education Service Center Region breakfasts as well as welcome many Superintendents from East Texas to the Capitol office.

As Senate District 3, with its 101 school districts, is a predominantly rural area, the concerns and needs of its school districts vary from those of a more urban district. Because of this, I appreciate opportunities to talk with educators to better understand how decisions made in Austin are impacting local schools.