What happened: Midland County Commissioners Court met Monday, Sept. 1, spending several hours working through the fiscal year 2027 budget and making millions of dollars in cuts while leaving several other spending decisions unresolved. Commissioners also accepted a $1.3 million grant to expand the District Attorney’s capacity to prosecute oil-field theft and border-related crimes and enacted a 90-day burn ban.

Key points:

  • FY2027 budget session: Commissioners spent most of the afternoon working through the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget, which county staff said began the session approximately $3.7 million above the spending figure proposed by County Judge Terry Johnson.

By the end of the session, after a series of cuts and adjustments, Commissioner Steven Villela said the working budget was approximately $496,000 below Johnson’s proposed figure, leaving room for several requests commissioners had not yet decided.

Among the cuts, commissioners removed a $300,000 Sheriff’s Office command post, reduced planned County Road 60 and Briarwood construction spending by $2.5 million, moved an additional medical examiner’s investigator position and vehicle to contingency, and removed a proposed Tahoe and Human Resources vehicle.

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Commissioners also added a 2% cost-of-living increase for county employees who have worked for the county for at least one year. Employees earning $50,000 or less annually will receive a 4% increase.

They also added one civil clerk position to each of the county’s four Justice of the Peace courts at a combined cost of approximately $243,658, and added $49,569 to the budget for the county judge’s salary for October through December. The additional funding came the day before commissioners appointed Jay Marquez as acting county judge while Johnson remains suspended with pay.

  • $1.3M border prosecution grant: Commissioners voted to accept a $1.3 million Border Prosecution Unit grant for the District Attorney’s office, which the office applied for roughly four months ago. The two-year grant will fund four prosecutors, two investigators, and one administrative staffer, along with computers, equipment, and vehicles.

The grant is designed to support prosecutions generated through the Texas Anti-Gang unit and oil-field theft cases and will operate as a regional resource, not solely for Midland County cases.

  • 90-day burn ban: Commissioners approved a 90-day burn ban for Midland County after the county’s Keetch-Byram Drought Index reached 615, above the 575 level at which the Texas A&M Forestry Service recommends considering restrictions.

The county’s assistant emergency operations coordinator told commissioners the last time Midland County enacted a burn ban was September 2023. The ban can be lifted before 90 days if conditions improve or extended if they worsen.

  • Courthouse roof lighting: The court approved $80,500 to light the courthouse roof, about $24,000 more than originally budgeted. The additional cost will extend lighting to lower portions of the roof that were not included in the original estimate. Commissioner Dianne Anderson said the additional money is available in the current facilities budget.
  • Health insurance increases: The court reviewed changes to the county’s employee health plan, including a proposal to move employees who use GLP-1 drugs for weight loss into a managed, direct-to-consumer program rather than covering those prescriptions under the standard county health plan.

Employees prescribed GLP-1 medications for diabetes or MASH liver disease would remain under the existing coverage. The county’s consultant estimated the change would produce approximately $1.2 million in net savings. Commissioners adopted $14.2 million as the health plan budget baseline.

Commissioners also approved an increase in employee and retiree health insurance premiums. Specific premium amounts were not stated during the meeting.