County seals provided, Graphic by Noah Dawson

The Potter and Randall County Commissioners’ Courts each met earlier this week to approve their respective county budget and property tax rates, with both counties making slight decreases to their tax rates. However, in both counties, the rates will bring in increased revenues and will likely leave taxpayers with higher bills due to increased property valuations.

The Potter County Commissioners’ Court met on Monday morning and approved a rate of $0.64725 per $100 of valuation, down from the previous rate of $0.70595. Despite the decrease in the tax rate, the rate will still increase county revenues, as the rate which would have been needed to maintain the same level of revenue was $0.63145. The rate is still below the voter-approval rate of $0.70112, meaning that no election will take place to give voters the opportunity to vote on the tax increase.

The Randall County Commissioners’ Court met on Tuesday morning and approved a rate of $0.41713 per $100 of valuation, down from the previous rate of $0.44421. Despite the decrease in the tax rate, the rate will still increase county revenues, as the rate which would have been needed to maintain the same level of revenue was $0.39360. The rate is also the maximum the county could have set without calling an election, as the rate is equal to the voter-approval rate.

Links to video archives of the meetings held by each county can be found by clicking the buttons below.

Note: a previous version of this story incorrectly referenced an outdated version of the Potter County budget and tax rate. The most recent budget on the Potter County website budget page was still the old budget at time of publication.