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Bastrop County, Texas

First Issues Docket

Every dead end in the money trail becomes a numbered pursuit here. When a document is obtained and ingested, the issue gets stamped with the date and what it revealed. 6 of 8 complete.
#1
Ingest the Bastrop County adopted budget.

Total, General Fund, and major offices from the adopted budget.

2026-08-21 — what this revealed: FY2025-26 tax-supported budget $93,738,915 — General Fund $73,512,281 (Sheriff and Jail alone are $27.9M of it), Road & Bridge $13,704,096 across four precincts, and Debt Service $6,522,538. Adopted tax rate $0.42870/$100, up from $0.40275. Every fund and department cross-foots to the county’s adopted budget.
✓ Complete
#2
Officials & Commissioners Court.

County Judge, four Precinct Commissioners, Sheriff, and other countywide offices.

2026-08-21 — what this revealed: County Judge Gregory Klaus; Commissioners Carmack (1), Beckett (2), Meuth (3), Glass (4); Sheriff Maurice Cook; DA Bryan Goertz (21st District, four counties). The court meets Mondays 9 AM at 804 Pecan St.
✓ Complete
#3
City budgets (Bastrop, Elgin, Smithville).

City budgets for Bastrop, Elgin, and Smithville.

2026-08-21 — what this revealed: All three ingested and walkable. City of Bastrop FY2026 adopted General Fund $18.61M — now with the full 13-department detail, each line clicking to its exact page of the budget book. Police is the largest department ($6.23M, about a third); Police and Fire together are about 43% (an earlier pass had mislabeled Police as Fire and overstated the pair at two-thirds — corrected). Bastrop also runs its own electric utility (Bastrop Power & Light). Elgin FY2026 adopted General Fund $18.13M. Smithville only publishes a PROPOSED budget ($7.03M GF) — labeled as such until the adopted book is posted.
✓ Complete
#4
County debt — how much, and how new.

The full debt picture behind the yearly Debt Service payment.

2026-08-21 — what this revealed: $70,025,000 of principal outstanding as of Oct 1, 2025 ($96,508,940 with all remaining interest), paid down through 2044. It is mostly recent: a single 2024 certificate of obligation for $31.3M is about 42% of all principal and roughly tripled the county's debt. Bonds rated AA+ (S&P) / Aa1 (Moody's). Source: the county's PFM debt-service booklet, now on the money trail under Debt Service.
✓ Complete
#5
Treasurer, and the county audit.

Who holds the county's money, and what the outside auditor said.

2026-08-21 — what this revealed: County Treasurer Brittney Ross (sworn in Jan 2023). The FY2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, audited by Pattillo, Brown & Hill, carries an unmodified ('clean') opinion, with total governmental net position of $69,009,465. Both are now cited on the documents page.
✓ Complete
#6
Who gets the checks.

Whether the county publishes a vendor check register — layer three of the money trail.

2026-08-21 — what this revealed: Yes — Bastrop County publishes an itemized open check register (every vendor, date, check number, and amount), more disclosure than most Texas counties. Largest recent named payees are road and fleet vendors: ATMAX Equipment ($596,924), Lake Country Chevrolet ($544,029), Pavecon paving ($354,391), Halff Associates engineering ($175,769). Registered as a citable source.
✓ Complete
#7
The federal Single Audit findings.

Bastrop County's FY2024 report says a federal Single Audit was required, but its Schedule of Findings and Questioned Costs is a separate report and is not posted online.

Open
#8
Publish the check register as open data — and earn the Contracts & Procurement star.

Bastrop posts itemized check registers as PDFs and holds a legacy 2014 award but no current Transparency Star. Publishing the same data in a machine-readable format would meet the Texas Comptroller’s Contracts & Procurement star criteria — the standard Tarrant County (the only six-star Texas county) already meets — and let this platform ingest the feed directly.

Open