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November / December 2011
Volume 23, Number 6

Helpful county and county-related websites

Counties sometimes struggle with explaining where property tax dollars go, in part because county tax assessor-collectors collect taxes for multiple entities.

But a feature on the Collin County website lays out the county’s spending in a simple and straightforward manner that lets readers know county government is a good deal.

To get to the info, residents go to the website at www. co.collin.tx.us, then click on the “Government” and “Open Government” links. There, they find the county’s check registers, the county’s budget and past budgets and videos of commissioners court meetings. There’s also a link for “Your Tax Dollars,” which breaks down the county’s budget thusly:

“First, it helps to know that Collin County claims about a dime of every property tax dollar collected within its boundaries,” the site states, using an example of the property tax dollars collected from a $221,700 home, which would cost its owner an estimated $5,286 in annual taxes, $543.17 of which would go to the county.

The site compares that to the amount residents spend on their cable or cell phone bills, then breaks it down further.

“More than half of it will pay for public safety and the county’s legal system,” the site states, breaking down those services by department. “The Criminal District Attorney’s office of 110 prosecutors, investigators and support staff handles more than 5,800 midsemeanor and 3,800 felony cases a year. The D.A. also recovered more than $825,000 in hot checks written to local merchants.”

The site includes similar run-downs of the area’s eight district courts, six county courts at law, five justices of the peace courthouses, four contable offices, the sheriff’s office and emergency dispatchers.

“Meanwhile, out on rural county roads, workers will pave more than 50 miles of packed stone with asphalt,” the site states. “Others will run health and immunization clinics; update and refine digital roads maps throughout the county to keep track of growth and addressing; some will help install new fiber optic cables to connect and keep running hundreds of government computers scattered throughout county offices.”

Considering that many cable/Internet and smart phone bills are double the county’s monthly $45.26 estimate, that sounds like a good deal, and a simple, inexpensive explanation that other counties can reproduce.

Other portions of the website are just as informative and just as simple. The site offers short feature stories on a variety of topics that help residents understand what county government is and the services it provides. One “day in the life” feature discusses the 25,000 vaccines given each year at the Collin County Immunization Clinic, while another discusses jail standards and the county’s long history of passing state jail inspections.