The Kleberg County Appraisal District Board of Directors met Thursday in order to continue their ongoing discussion over the proposed 2011 budget and a motion was passed which directed the district to come up with a budget that was no higher than $820,000.

Chief Appraiser Tina Flores asked the board to consider a proposed 2011 budget of $983,880.72, which is $21,405.92 higher than the current 2010 budget of $962,474.80.

The majority of the board’s concern was over salaries, where Flores proposed a salary budget of $441,498, which included $28,458.22 raises for the staff.

“The Kleberg County Appraisal District is 4 to 24 percent below the average as far as salaries,” she said.

Flores said her staff does four salary studies a year and the salary budget was comparable to other appraisal districts in the area of the same size.

“We typically look at salaries of the appraisal districts our size and that is what we typically propose to the board of directors,” she said. “We feel that our analysis was fair and reasonable.”

Board member Daniel Morales noticed a difference in the proposed salary budget from what was initially proposed at an earlier workshop and asked Flores what made up the difference.

“When you gave us the first proposal, there was a subtotal of $437,000 for salaries, the proposal you gave us today is $441,498, what is your reasoning for that?” Morales asked.

Flores said that was due to salary studies that were received after the initial proposed budget so her adjustments were made once all studies were collected and looked at.

“When we first made the budget we had not yet received any new information and we were using last year’s amounts,” she said.

“We received them, as expected, in late July and early August,” she said.

“We presented these figures so that we can be competitive in retention and recruitment,” Flores said.

“This budget also allows for the staff to perform at their full potential with confidence and with the tools they need to work sufficiently.”

She also showed charts, which displayed how much the appraisal district took from each taxing entity including, Kleberg County, City of Kingsville, South Texas Water Authority, Kingsville ISD, Ricardo ISD, Riviera ISD, Santa Gertrudis ISD, and the Kenedy County Groundwater Conservation District.

Morales spoke again and reminded the board that the 2011 proposed budget was being compared to the 2010 budget, which is not yet actual.

“When you look at your previous budget to next year’s budget it’s somewhat of a bad taste in your mouth because you’re not comparing apples to apples here, it’s more like apples to oranges,” he said.

Morales asked Flores what she spent in total expenses in 2009 and board member Al Garcia agreed that would be a good question to ask.

Flores said she didn’t know off the top of her head and she would have to go back and look; Morales began passing out a paper to all board members, which had the total expenses for 2007, 2008, and 2009.

“In 2007, you spent $760,000, in 2008 around $810,000 and in 2009 another $810,000, and today you are asking for $984,000,” Morales said.

“That is apples and apples; when you proposed the 2010 budget vs. the 2011 budget you are not really getting a true picture of what is being spent on an annual basis.”

Garcia asked where the document showing the figures came from and Morales replied that the information was collected upon his request by her staff at the appraisal district.

Flores said part of her job is making sure there is enough room in the budget for the possibility of unexpected costs.

“I have to count for things that may take place that you are not considering,” she said.

Morales asked, “What am I not considering?”

Flores said, “litigation.”

Morales asked her, “Is this not what you spent,” referring to the documents.

Flores replied, “Yes it was.”

Garcia asked Flores if she verified the amounts on the document Morales presented and Flores said no she had not.

Morales then asked a member of her staff, who was present at the meeting, if he had given him those numbers and the staff member replied yes.

Garcia asked board chairman Filiberto Garcia if Flores could be given a copy of the document in order for her to verify it and the chairman agreed.

Flores replied, “I do wish that those who have questions would come in and talk with us and work with us so that we can work together as a team for the betterment of the appraisal district,” she said. “That would be better instead of doing all of this behind the scenes work.”

Morales told Flores, “Your staff knew that I had asked for this information.”

Flores then spoke directly to Morales, “I believe you are a new member and there are some situations that have occurred in past and reasons for why we may have asked to keep entities monies in order to account for possibilities in situations but in looking at the refunds you can see that anything that is not used is returned to that entity.”

Chairman Garcia then spoke to the standing room only audience and asked for anyone who had a comment to step forward and speak; Pct. 4 County Commissioner Romeo Lomas was the first to speak.

“The thing is people can’t understand why we have a lot of lawsuits and why they are being taxed so we can pay that. If we are doing such a professional job here then we shouldn’t be facing six or seven lawsuits a year,” Lomas said.

“The people in the colonias Mexicanas haven’t done anything to their homes and haven’t added anything for the past 20 years and all of a sudden they see that their appraisal rate went from one side to the other side,” Lomas added. “I feel that if we are going to provide you with money for this budget then you should consider what we’re going through and I’m asking you this on behalf of those people who are taxpayers and property owners that can’t afford anymore.”

Santa Gertrudis ISD Superintendent Mary Springs asked the board to consider the fact that school districts around the state are being asked to stick to the same budget that they were given in 2005/2006 and that their revenues are based on how many students are enrolled in their school district, not on property values.

“Santa Gertrudis ISD is a Chapter 41 district and we are penalized by the state when our property values are increased,” Springs said. “Over the past two years we have also had additional penalties assessed to us because of the reappraisal that was done and we had to pay money back to some of our taxing entities which came out of our general operating budget and was around $70,000 in litigation that the appraisal district was involved in.”

Springs asked that the board be considerate of these things and look out for all parties involved.

“We would like for you to look at this budget as a way of saving us money as well,” she said. “I know that Mrs. Flores pointed out that it is a small percentage of our operating budget that goes to the appraisal district, most of our budget goes to salaries as well, however, we were required by the state to give an unfunded pay raise to teachers, which we are glad to give, but that’s money that we had to come up with from some place else. Please look at this budget and look at actual expenditures that were spent.”

Corando Garza, KISD school board member also spoke about the mandate to give teacher pay raises and said he also hopes the board thinks about that when they handle their budget.

Sylvia Arguijo, RISD school board president and business owner said things are not looking well for her district.

“We lost $100,000 from our property values which is putting us in a deficient and in order to operate we are going to have to go into the fund balance and that is not a good thing for us,” Arguijo said.

“I know that we do check and see what everyone else is getting paid across the board and that is a good tool but that doesn’t mean that we give a people a raise just because we know that other districts our size are doing it; a study does not warrant a pay increase.”

Flores then spoke as a taxpayer.

“As a taxpayer I don’t like paying taxes either but I do know that I am paying taxes in order to pay other people’s salaries as well including those at the school district, county, city, and water district. I keep hearing from a lot from Riviera and the Riviera Superintendent is being paid over the average for a district their size. Riviera may need to look there,” Flores said.

Riviera ISD Superintendent Ernest Havner was in the audience and had no comment or rebuttal.

Flores continued, “Everyone that works here has children in all the surrounding districts so they are fully aware of these circumstances. I think an average wage, which is what we’re asking for, is not to much to ask for. Nobody likes taxes but that doesn’t mean that the workers here don’t deserve a fair and average wage for the work that they do.”

Before making a motion, Morales said he applauds the staff for the work that they do, but under current circumstances he thinks that all salaries should be freezed compared to the 2010 budget.

He then made a motion that the 2011 budget for the Kleberg County Appraisal District be no more than $820,000 with salaries being frozen as they were in 2010.

Vice Chairman of the board Edwin Mittag seconded the motion, board members Juan Garza, Filiberto Garcia, Mittag, and Morales voted yes; Al Garcia voted no.

The meeting was one of many in a continuing series of workshops and the board has to have the 2011 budget adopted by September 15.