Office of County Commissioner Precinct 1
Christina Drewry
September 15, 2026
I am not a politician. I am an EMPLOYEE of Precinct 1. I see my BOSSES every month — whether it’s my weekly Coffee with the Commissioner, my monthlyTown Halls, checking on road issues or their replies to my weekly emails. They know what’s happening with their money because I tell them. And they told me, plainly: Don’t raise my taxes. Trim your own budget first.
On the evening of August 25, more than 40 citizens came to that Public Hearing. I knew about a dozen of them by name. The rest I may not have met before that night, but I heard them. The message wasn’t complicated. It wasn’t partisan. It was the customer talking to the people who work for them: No. Do a better job with what you already have.
So – I vote my precinct today.
This budget raises the tax rate when families are already paying more for everything.
The county will quote about $86 dollars more on the “typical” homestead. That is how you make a tax increase sound small.
- It will be felt in every escrowed mortgage payment.
- It will limit our first-time homebuyers.
- It will force people to consider moving to another county for lower taxes.
- It will drive people out of homes they have built memories in for decades.
Renters are not spared. They will pay this increase on a house they do not own. The landlord doesn’t eat that bill. You don’t serve the customer by mailing them a higher bill and calling it leadership. A smaller increase is still an increase. It takes choices off the table.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Tarrant County is larger than we are. Under Judge Tim O’Hare they have adopted a rate below the No-New-Revenue rate 3 years in a row. They trimmed first. If they can live within the growth, Smith County can too. The difference is backbone.
Good customer service means we spend their money the way they would spend it.
We didn’t do our very best.
We miss opportunities to put high-cost items out to bid.
We are reactive not proactive, and that cost is on the taxpayer.
Line items that do not trend that high were left padded because it is easier than going account by account. That is not having a backbone and that is how government grows.
On pay we put a band-aid on salaries instead of a real plan. It doesn’t fix the wide differences in pay that HR identified. We should use reserve dollars — one time — for a professional salary study so FY28 can fix it on a measured plan, not another patch.
I will give this Court credit where it served the customer. Using reserves for capital and to buy down debt is the right use of money above the 25 percent policy. We staffed the new courthouse — a good start.
We are setting up a fleet fund line item but we still need centralized fleet management.
FY28 will be better only if we do the work all year — a travel policy and vacancy policy, monthly department reports in court, position reviews, performance evaluations, a professional salary study, a new Budget Officer, and the new financial software.
Here is the hard truth, and Smith County is a prime example of it. Government does not have an appetite to cut spending. In the next legislative cycle, lawmakers will consider lowering the ceiling from 3.5% to 1%. And rightfully so.
The voters will get to decide if we are truly “Striving for Excellence”. If the Texas Legislature succeeds with this priority, an increase like this one will have to be justified to the people who pay it. That is the upside.
- We will have to prove we trimmed the fat.
- We will have to prove the request is a need, not a want.
- We will have to prove that we are performing well.
If we earn the trust of the customers, they will decide to approve an increase above 1%. The FY 2028 work we discussed is a first step.
Precinct 1 did not hire me to conform to the status quo. Citizens are tired of being taken advantage of and ignored. We didn’t prove this large of an increase was necessary, that we did everything we could to reduce waste, and they are not pleased with this tax increase.
Smith County, we have to do better for our customers. That is why I vote no.
