NEWTON COUNTY, Texas — All Newton County residents will soon have to pay for trash services.
Trash services have been free for years, but this change must be made to cut down on the county's costs.
Newton County Elected Judge Ronnie Cochran says this, along with many issues, fall under a $2.2 million deficit the county is facing.
On the other hand, current Newton County Judge Kenneth Weeks disagrees and says he's never heard of such a thing.
"I'm not aware of a 2.2 million whatever deficit you're talking about. I haven't been made aware of those figures. We have been working on the 2023 budget and to reach a balance budget we did get rid of the service of solid waste," Weeks said.
Cochran and newly elected Precinct 4 Commissioner Leonard Powell say they have also looked at figures from Newton County's general budget and they don't add up.
"The county is basically $2.2 million in the hole on our general fund to balance our 2023 budget. The current administration decided to defund our solid waste," said Cochran.
Cochran and Powell say when they crunched the numbers, they found the budget has increased by 400 percent in the last four years
They believe the county has been wasting money.
"We kept a balance for the last seven or eight years of 2.3 to 2.5 in our general fund balance year end. So, starting in 2018 it's just totally went downhill. We ended this year, we adopted a deficit budget last year was 1.2 this year is another 1.2," Cochran said
Judge Weeks says he knows where the money was spent.
"When the TM did there audit or FEMA done their audit for some requirements it wasn't eligible and we had to repay it we paid over half a million dollars back just in debt alone. We're having to pay back CottonWood, a powerplant in Deweyville over a lawsuit," said Weeks.
But, Powell and Cochran say taking the trash services away from resident is the biggest issue they'll face when coming into office.
"That's the only benefit you get for living in Newton County. Lower taxes and we give you a place to dump your garbage," said Powell.
Judge Weeks says the service of trash may be taken out of commissioners court and they would bring in a third party to oversee it.
Residents could expect to start paying around $10 for trash services.