Parker County Precinct 3 Commissioner Larry Walden did double duty at our meeting, being both swoon in as a Rotarian and our guest speaker. Walden says has a lot of challenges in his job, but he says one of his biggest is explaining to city folk that moving to unincorporated Parker County is not the city.
Walden being inducted by Beau Rees
“One of my challenges is getting the world out that if you live in unincorporated Parker County, it’s not going to be the same as the city you live from,” he explained. “I try to do that and let people know where their tax money goes and a small portion goes to road and bridge. The best opportunities that I get is to meet with the homeowner’s association when a new subdivision comes in to explain to them the difference between a county road and a city street.”
Government transparency and taxes was the topic at the Rotary Club of Weatherford’s general meeting presentation on Sept. 21. Walden spoke about both to the club.
“Parker County needs representation. We all as taxpayers need to know if we’re getting our money’s worth, our funding that we deserve. The budget will soon wrap up with the tax rate being about 32 cents. County government can be inefficient. It is my job to make it as efficient as possible by making sure the tax dollar is applied in the correct place.”
Walden spoke at lengths about the road and bridge fund and the dividing of it based off tax rate and road miles, not a four-way equal share. Walden said his office constantly receives calls by residents who are not aware of the percentage
of their taxes go to the road and bridge fund. He said it’s a common misconception that the county gets a bulk of the tax money, when the reality is much different. The breakdown looks more like this: 53 percent to Weatherford ISD, 21 percent to the City of Weatherford, 12.44 percent to Parker County, 5.47 percent to Weatherford College and 3.19 percent to lateral road tax. In Precinct 3, there are 358 miles of county road, roughly one third land wise of the county. The lateral road tax is used to build and maintain those roads.
Walden also spoke about the Adopt- A-County Road program. This program allows residents to adopt and maintain county roads for 2-year increments. Go to the parkercountytx.com/405/Adopt-A-Country-Road for more information.
After the presentation, President Watson highlighted some upcoming events, including flag duty and the pancake supper.