COLUMN: Pct. 3 budget cut proposal not supported by statistics

Ellis County Precinct 3 County Commissioner Paul Perry.

These statistics were furnished by the county engineer's office through their software. To me, they support the question — regardless of the needs of any other precinct: Why is the precinct 3 budget being hit? There is no solid or quantitative reason for this.

I stood up to the county judge regarding salary increases for elected officials without sufficient budget discussion of information being provided by the judge, and I have disagreed with the judge on many other issues. Why is the Precinct 3 budget, the precinct with the greatest number of county road miles that need to be maintained being cut in a year in which county revenues are up? I leave that to Ellis County taxpayers to decide.

As one who is required by law to vote on pay increases and the budget, I think it is necessary to have some idea of the direction the county judge wishes to take the budget in an open forum (not private meetings) before we vote on pay increases, etc. Other counties do this — why not us? I was the only county commissioner who both voted against the three-percent raise for elected officials and ALSO signed an affidavit to decline the raise.

Every other commissioner's budget is increasing in total. Precinct 3 is not a low-growth precinct, as the judge seems to be asserting. We have a lot of development going on and more to come. Part of this precinct is still rural, but much of it is turning into suburbs. It is by far the largest precinct in terms of county roads that need to be maintained for the use not just of our citizens in their daily activities, but roads and bridges that need to be passable for emergency personnel and school buses, etc.

In addition, it is one of the two precincts hardest hit by the flooding, which is a major cost of capital. We had close to $400,000 worth of damage done during the floods — much more than at least two other precincts, based on the most recent statistics I have seen. But current road mileage and bridge numbers speak for themselves.

Below are the statistics for each Precinct. This includes miles of county road, total square miles and the number of county bridges.

The above statistics are approximations based on the current status Ellis County's GIS Database. Statistics are inclined to change as the GIS Database is updated.

Past budget proposal coverage:

Click here to read "Proposal to cut Pct. 3 Road and Bridge budget; Commissioner Perry calls it retaliation".

Click here to read "County Commissioners to vote Monday on raises for elected officials".