Conservative Spending

Budgeting in Rockwall County government is undergoing a major transformation under the leadership of County Judge Frank New. Frank has long advocated for a strategic approach to fiscal restraint aimed at curbing unchecked spending, promoting transparency in the budgeting process, and maintaining low tax burdens for citizens. Since he took office in 2023, Frank has put those strategies to work for Rockwall County.

ZERO BASED BUDGETING: Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) requires county officials to justify every dollar in the annual budget rather than relying on past allocations. Widely promoted at the State level by conservatives such as Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and Secretary of State Jane Nelson, ZBB promotes fiscal discipline by “wiping the slate clean” each cycle. Although ZBB is only effective where a healthy contingency fund for unexpected expenses is maintained, this method combats the tendency of agency budgets to inflate arbitrarily each year. It also enhances transparency in the budgeting process and reduces the opportunity for waste. Judge New has implemented ZBB in Rockwall County’s budget process and in doing so has changed the county’s spending culture: necessitating officials and departments heads to evaluate every year what expenditures have continued value in serving the people of Rockwall County and what expenditures should be discontinued.

“NO NEW REVENUE” RATE: During his first campaign, Judge New promised the people of Rockwall County that he could and would implement the “Equivalency” or “No New Revenue” tax rate if elected, and he made good on that promise. The “No New Revenue” rate, when theory is put to practice, means the property tax rate for individuals is adjusted yearly to offset the increase in their appraised property value. The burden on each taxpayer stays consistent. The increase in budget that is required to adapt infrastructure and services to a growing population is funded by the new businesses and homeowners coming in–exactly as it should be. The change from taxation as it was before Judge New was elected to what it is now under the “No New Revenue” rate was no easy task, requiring a full budget cycle to fully implement, but worth every ounce of effort to prove once and for all that increasing the tax burden for existing homeowners every year is NOT a foregone conclusion. Conservative government spending can and should do better for its people.

FISCAL TRANSPARENCY: Under the direction of Judge New, and for the first time ever in Rockwall County, the budgeting process was fully transparent. Every department budget request from Road and Bridge, to Elections, to the Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney’s Office was presented at meetings open to the public, recorded, and broadcast live. During these meetings, which can be accessed by anyone interested on the county website, elected officials and department heads had the opportunity to justify their budget requests, respond to questions from the Commissioners Court and provide documentation and statistics as necessary. Equally as important, the discussions of the Court surrounding each of the department’s budget requests were also conducted publicly. Thanks to this new push for full fiscal transparency in government spending, the citizens of Rockwall County can not only know what each department is spending money on, but also how their County Judge and Commissioners Court think and feel about those expenditures. Fiscal transparency is not only right, it is necessary to keep Rockwall County’s elected officials and department heads, including the Commissioners Court and County Judge, accountable to the people they serve.