Editor:

I read with interest your headline “Former tax collector says cost to county to collect all taxes: $3,000” from remarks she made to the commissioners court in 2008.

However, there was no mention of the following collection fees presented at the same meeting:

•Bellville ISD, $3.17 per parcel

•Sealy ISD, $4.41 per parcel

•Brazos ISD, $4.472 per parcel

There is little consistency in tax collection fees in the 254 counties in Texas.

Mrs. Gibbud’s $3,000 total fees represent one extreme. Brazos ISD’s collection fee at $4.472 per parcel represents the other extreme.

However, both of these extremes are legal in Texas.

The commissioners court took a modest middle of the road approach by approving the $1.98 per parcel recommendation of the ad hoc committee. The ad hoc committee’s report is the first complete and independent study of this issue since the 2002 State Comptroller’s Financial Review.

The CPA and attorney who researched and prepared the comptroller’s report developed a formula that disbursed 81% of the costs for tax collection to all of the other entities and 19% of the costs to the county.

The state comptroller’s formula was prepared at the request of Mrs. Gibbud and the commissioners court. The report recommended total collection fees of $118,553, far more than Mrs. Gibbud’s $3,000.

The court’s most recent action approved a formula that combines fees from the 1% of collections contracts plus the committee’s recommended $1.98/parcel from the schools, totaling 46% of collection costs with the county picking up the remaining 54% of the costs.

I have been a strong supporter of the comptroller’s report last year and this year. I do not see how the county can go wrong approving a formula prepared by a state agency after studying the law as it applies specifically to Bee County.

Eloy Rodriguez

Commissioner, Pct. 3