Consistent. Principled. Action.

Citizens,

Our budget discussions are rapidly approaching, and I want to give you my priorities for this year.

Our most important job is to fund the justice and law enforcement system and the services required by the state for our citizens. The priorities below are the specific issues that I see for this year within our overall budget responsibilities.

Our first priority in a downturn is to continue to ensure the safety of our employees and citizens in all county venues. There are some aging facilities that require work now to preclude future safety issues.

Second, we need to protect our physical assets - our facilities - against deterioration. Maintenance grows relatively more important as we deal with a flat budget year. If we allow our physical assets to deteriorate, it will only require a larger maintenance budget later to refurbish neglected facilities.

Safety and maintenance issues will be identified on a document called the Permanent Improvement Program - which really includes maintenance more than permanent improvements. I will encourage my colleagues on the court to adequately fund our safety and maintenance requirements. Myers Park and Event Center, for example, hosts more than 200 events every year, but needs more safety and maintenance dollars.

Third, we need to pay down our unfunded liabilities. I am very proud of the court for actions that we took on Monday, July 20, to target our two major unfunded liabilities, which currently stand at almost $80 million and growing rapidly. We directed the budget director to plan for $5 million payments from existing fund balance for several years in addition to our normal yearly payments. If approved in the final budget, this additional funding will reduce the long-term liabilities that will fall to our children to pay. Just as you are reducing your debt in this downturn, we will start to do the same with our unfunded liabilities.

Fourth, a flat county budget becomes increasingly obvious as the nation continues to work through the downturn. The national economic picture remains cloudy and our county unemployment continues to rise. The chief appraiser believes that next year's property tax base will most likely decline, requiring even more hard decisions next year. A truly flat budget this year will soften the potentially greater impacts next year.

Fifth, on a positive note even in the midst of the economic conditions, although I will not speak for the full court, I do not see layoffs this coming year. The current overall county unemployment rate of 7.7% translates to approximately 130 county employees, but our tax base this year is strong enough to retain all employees. Following years are more difficult to gauge. Our citizens' efficiency committee will start work soon and when they identify major efficiencies, any personnel reductions, if necessary, may be handled through attrition and retirements.

I invite you to watch our week-long budget workshop through the internet at http://collin.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2 from August 17-21.

Sincerely,
Keith

Citizens,

Today I posted on the internet the donors to my re-election campaign. You may view the list on the left.

As I said in the press release, "I'm proud that Collin County was the first county in the entire nation to post our checkbook registry online, providing citizens with the opportunity to see first-hand how their tax dollars are spent. I'm extending that type of transparency to my campaign, allowing Collin County citizens convenient and full disclosure to my campaign funding."

Sincerely,
Keith

Fellow citizens,

Tomorrow we celebrate freedom on the 4th of July, Independence Day.

As we celebrate, enjoy again one of the best descriptions of civil society and government ever written, the most well-known sentences from our Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

These two sentences encapsulate the great truths that make our nation free.

May God bless you and yours,
Keith