Exactly what do we get from the county’s share of your property taxes?

First, it helps to know that Collin County claims about a dime of every property tax dollar collected within its boundaries. In Plano, for example, a $221,700 home would draw $5,286 in annual taxes.

And after annual city, school and community college levies are taken out, the county’s share would come to $543.17 a year – or about $45.26 a month.

So for the price of cable TV, or a mobile phone calling plan, what follows is a basic tally of how the money is spent:

More than half of it will pay for public safety and the county’s legal system – 59.1%, to be exact – a substantial part of the county’s role in the local government services:

• The Criminal District Attorney’s office of 110 prosecutors, investigators and support staff handles more than 5,800 misdemeanor and 3,800 felony cases a year. The D.A. also recovered more than $825,000 in hot checks written to local merchants.
• Eight state District Courts handle civil, family and criminal cases. The state pays the lion’s share of judicial salaries, but the county staffs the courts with bailiffs, court reporters and clerical staff to keep the wheels of justice turning. Beyond criminal dockets, more than 11,300 civil cases will be filed this year, more than 7,000 of which will be split between divorce filings and other family law matters.
• Another six County Courts at Law courts will handle more than 8,800 civil and criminal cases this year – with lawsuit claims ranging up to $100,000, and Class A- and B- misdemeanors.
• Five Justices of the Peace in sub-courthouses are scattered throughout the county, shepherding more than 42,000 traffic cases, plus another 10,000 cases including small claims courts and truancy.
• Don’t forget, 700 probate case and 800-plus mental health cases are filed each year.
• Four Constables and 26 deputies will act as official process servers, passing out some 18,000 civil papers, 16,000 warrants and tens of thousands of other official papers, notices and evictions in the county.
• The Sheriff’s Office will staff the jail to house, feed and watch over 630 adult prisoners around the clock on any given day. A juvenile facility will house about 90 young offenders on average, with room for about 50 more. On top of that, deputies will respond to almost 19,000 service calls, draw up 2,600 criminal complaints and work on at least 275 drug cases.
• Sheriff’s dispatchers will take 33,500 “911” calls from small towns and outlying rural areas.
  

County payouts outside of law enforcement and criminal justice go to programs where:

• County clerks will record and file 185,000 land documents, 9,000-plus business name filings, and more than 47,000 birth, death or marriage certificates.
• District clerks will see about 15,400 new filings in criminal, civil, family and juvenile cases; receive almost 16,000 child support payments and process some 8,000 passport applications.
• Meanwhile, out on rural county roads, workers will pave more than 50 miles of packed stone with asphalt.
• Hundreds of other county workers will repair and maintain the buildings where all this occurs, other will watch over the building and expanding of facilities – like the $53 million courthouse nearing completion on U.S. Highway 75 and Bloomdale Road in McKinney.
• Others will run health and immunization clinics; update and refine digital roads maps throughout the county to keep track of the growth and addressing; some will help install new fiber optic cables to connect and keep running hundreds of government computers scattered throughout county offices.

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