Rockwall County commissioners are expected to raise the property tax rate for the next budget year – in part to help pay for a new courthouse twice rejected by voters.

A public hearing on the tax rate for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 is scheduled for Tuesday night.

The proposed rate of 39.59 cents per $100 valuation – up from 35 cents – would cost the owner of a $175,000 home an extra $80 per year. But commissioners said the proposal is not a target but a ceiling, so any increase could be smaller.

Like other area counties, Rockwall is trying to figure out how to pay for new costs as revenues flatten. Even with a rate hike, leaders expect to dip into reserves to fund the $27.4 million proposed budget.

A 4.59-cent rate increase would generate more than $3 million in new revenue, county Treasurer Bill Sinclair said. More than half that total is needed to make debt payments on the $30 million courthouse and on the $11.5 million library that will open next month.

"People don't like higher taxes," County Judge Chris Florance said. "I don't like it. I'm very sensitive to that. But people have elected me to move this county forward."

The courthouse payments could stir some debate among voters, who rejected bond packages for a new courthouse in 2004 and again in 2005. In May, commissioners voted 3-2 to fund a slightly smaller version of the project through tax notes, which don't require voter approval. They called it a state-mandated need that would become more expensive if the county waited longer.

Mary Lou Hawkins-Curtis, the sharp-tongued treasurer of the No Higher Taxes Group who fought the courthouse project, said she would show up at Tuesday's public hearing to oppose any tax increase.

"We're fixing to fire up and get them mad again," she said. "We'll be at the meetings and do what we can."

Mr. Florance has spent plenty of time justifying the project, noting that the 117,000-square-foot courthouse would allow the county to close a number of satellite offices and replace the Ridge Road courts center – a converted office building tight on space that Mr. Florance said violates a number of codes.

"If we get this in the ground, we can get all our rental properties off the books and save money by paying for it now," Mr. Florance said. "But to some voters, I've committed the cardinal sin."

Commissioners are to vote on the new rate Sept. 9. Ms. Grinnan said she did not expect commissioners to bring the tax rate up to the full 39.59 cents per $100 valuation.

Even if they did, the commissioners might have to decide between dipping into reserves and cutting the proposed $27.4 million budget. County Auditor John Blackwood estimates general fund revenue for the coming fiscal year at $24.3 million.

Mr. Florance said that the county would probably dip into reserves but that commissioners haven't decided how much. That decision is directly related to the decision on the tax rate.

"The question is how much are we going to depend on the general fund or the ... [reserves] to keep our tax rate lower?" Mr. Florance said.

The first draft of the budget includes pay increases of 4.48 percent to 6.48 percent for county employees. It also includes $500,000 to go toward a veterans memorial at the new courthouse at T.L. Townsend Drive and Interstate 30.