Saturday, December 14, 2024
The Hood County Commissioners Court unanimously approved a resolution Nov. 12 in support of a county motor fuel tax exemption.
Precinct 1 Commissioner Kevin Andrews, who introduced the agenda item, explained that the resolution requests that the state legislature exempt counties from paying state taxes on fuel used in county vehicles.
"Counties pay tax on the fuel that they use,” Andrews said. “Several entities do not. Schools do not pay tax on fuel. Volunteer fire departments don't pay tax on fuel. There's a little bit of a return that comes back from the state, but it’s not based on how many gallons you use, or anything like that.”
He explained that the resolution was initially raised by Cass County Judge Travis Ransom, who used the phrase “tax churn” in regard to the state refund.
"I thought, ‘Boy, is that not appropriate?’” Andrews said. “Where you get in there and it just muckies up, and some of the money gets lost down there in Austin and gets returned back to us. This is a much cleaner thing, just to say, let's not charge taxes to our taxpayers to pay that tax to send down to Austin for them to tax churn and then send a little bit back to us — that's what this resolution, in a nutshell, is asking.”
According to the resolution, Texas counties should be exempt from motor fuel taxes since they are the action arm of the state government, they provide state services to constituents at the local level, and they also provide emergency management services to the citizens.
The resolution also states that the rising cost of fuel has had a significant impact on county budgets. Therefore, by exempting motor fuel taxes for counties in Texas, it will “reduce tax churn in the state and further alleviate the impact of local county property taxes to the citizens of Texas.”
According to the county’s resolution, it is in the best interest of Texas counties and their taxpayers to support and favor passage of legislation that exempts counties from certain motor fuel taxes.
Andrews officially made a motion to pass the resolution in support of the county motor fuel tax exemption. Following a second from Precinct 4 Commissioner Dave Eagle, the motion passed unanimously.
