Between the oil- and gas-industry bust, and the business closings forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, local taxing entities are already sharpening their knives for fiscal year 2021, and preparing to trim the fat.

County Judge George Briant officially ushered in the budget planning season this week with grim, but hardly surprising, news. Briant advised county commissioners to be considering what services and projects they might be willing to cut, or whether they want to raise the tax rate or draw on reserves to pay those expenses.

In anticipation of the first estimated appraisal values, which should arrive next month, Briant said, “Given this economy, until the first property appraisal, it’s hard to know what we can do. I have concerns. We all do.”

“I have no idea as to what we can estimate,” he said. “If it goes down 20 to 25 percent, it’s going to be tough to maintain the services we have without raising taxes.”

While he left the door open, Briant made it clear he had no stomach for a tax rate increase. “I don’t feel personally that we can do that,” he said. “But if we’re not raising taxes, we may have to take some out of reserves. That’s what it’s for, but we can’t become dependent on that.”

“We provide a lot of things around here, and that’s good,” Briant said. “But our businesses and residents are going to have a tough time paying taxes next year, anyway.” “If you are set on not raising the tax rate,

“If you are set on not raising the tax rate, let me know,” he said. “I think there are other entities in this community that won’t have a lot of choice about that.”

City Manager Joe Jarosek is staring down the same barrel. In addition to likely declines in tax values, the city also depends on revenue from sales tax collections and hotel/motel tax (HOT) funds.

“The sales tax is impacted,” Jarosek said on Tuesday. “At our current pace, we’ll only capture 80 percent of our projected $645,000. HOT is only going to reach 70 percent of our projection.”

“We’re minimizing expenditures at this stage,” he said, “and there is a strong possibility that we’ll need to cut back.”

Jarosek did say that the Sunset Park lighting project, which is nearing completion this week (see related story), was already funded using HOT reserves, and would be unaffected. Other projects that might have drawn on those funds, however, may be.

The city council will discuss budget concerns in their April meeting, which will be held online via Zoom on Monday evening, April 20, at 5 pm.

Anyone wishing to participate or view the webinar meeting may do so with the following information and codes: To access Zoom, go to zoom.com. The codes are: Meeting ID 994-0279-1815 and Password 334568.