July 16, 2025 - The Shelby County Commissioners Court held a budget workshop Wednesday, July 16, 2025, and they heard of the needs of the Elections Administrator and Shelby County Sheriff’s Department.
Nancy Adams, Elections Administrator, stated the Secretary of State office requires Texas voters to get new registration cards every two years.
“That’s a large expense. Postage, printing, mailing, all of that stuff,” said Adams. “That’s the majority of what I’m asking for.”
Adams said that is why the expense is going up around $4,700. She also increased the budgeted amount for travel expense from $500 to $1,000.
County Judge Allison Harbison clarified that would be increasing to $75,550 from $70,750.
Shelby County Sheriff Gerald Corbell and Chief Deputy Mike Hanson presented a long list of items the Sheriff’s Department needs.
Several of the items addressed included radios for the jail and courthouse security, radios for patrol officers, AED equipment in the jail, annual service for the jail power generator, in-car computer systems, the potential of increase in pay to officers - especially those in administrative roles, and an employee dedicated to evidence inventory.
While handheld radios for officers were at a possible rate of $8,000 due to the need of 800 MHZ radios to be compatible with state systems being installed by DETCOG, in-car cameras were also a potential expense at around $30,000 for three vehicles. Bodycams are also a need stated by the Sheriff’s Department.
Budget workshops are intended to help the commissioners hear and discuss what increases may be needed to the overall budget and what specific departments might have needs not addressed in their current budget. Judge Harbison said letters were sent out from her office around three weeks previous to the budget workshop so county departments could be aware and prepare to present any budget adjustments.
Clint Porterfield, County Auditor, explained that time is running short on what the court has to decide for the upcoming budget.
“Today is July 16, we will not have court or a budget workshop, next week we receive certified values and a post budget has to be prepared and filed shortly thereafter. You just digested a lot of information that needs to be decided on now to prepare a proposed budget and [the commissioners] won't be here next week,” said Porterfield. “I don't know what to tell you as far as filing a budget, a proposed budget, a lot has been given to the judge to have to decide on. And nothing goes into the proposed budget unless there is a document from the judge putting those in there, so she has a tremendous responsibility to pick and choose what does and what does not.”
Porterfield rhetorically inquired of the court if anyone believes the county has a balanced budget, and he said “no.” He explained that SB2 put a cap on revenue of three-and-a-half percent, about $400,000.
“In next year's budget, we already have a $100,000 health insurance increase. We have a $100,000 software expenditure. We haven't even talked about pay increases, if so, how much you do and when and where. And in this year's budget. We have a $500,000 line item of fixed assets for two projects, mostly identified across the street,” said Porterfield. “Last year, we also funded some additional oil startup costs for each precinct. That was nearly $400,000. All I'm telling you is that we do not have a balanced budget from the get go. We had to use our savings. We had a very conservative budget, therefore we don't normally have to use all of it.”
Porterfield reminded the court that last year, they used $1.1 million of fund balance to balance the budget.
“So we have to be very prudent in the choices we make as to what we can budget and what we cannot budget. So it's a very tough decision with the needs of our county in all areas. So again, I'll just close with saying today is July 16th. There's a lot of work to be done in the next two weeks to work on tax rate, tax structure, and funds needed to balance the budget,” said Porterfield.
As of this report, there is no meeting scheduled for the following week due to the commissioners being out of the county for training.
