In short
What a budget does
Each year the commissioners court adopts a budget. It sets how much each department may spend. Raising a department’s total needs the court’s vote. Budgets lapse at the end of the year.1
The audit then compares what was spent with the budget. Funds with no adopted budget are left out of that comparison.1
The 16 funds
The audit names these funds:1
- Appellate Judicial System
- Avery Centre Road District #1
- Child Abuse Prevention
- Child Safety
- Community Improvement Pct. 4
- County Sheriff
- District Attorney Welfare Fraud
- Fire Code Enforcement
- Grants
- Local Provider Participation
- Pass-through Funding Program
- Unclaimed Juvenile Restitution
- WM-City of and Hutto ISD
- WM-Community Recreation Facility
- WM-Future Environmental Liability
- WM-Master Site Development
The grants fund
The grants fund holds money from other governments and private groups for programs the county does not fully fund.2 In 2025 it spent $49,840,994.2 The audit says it had $57.0 million in cash and investments.4
One state grant held in trust
The audit describes one state grant in detail. In 2021 the Texas Water Development Board agreed to pay up to about $4.6 million to map flood areas in the county. The money sits in a trust account in the county’s name. The state board keeps control of it and pays it out only as the county spends. In 2025 the county spent about $261,883 of it. That left $366,847.5
The audit’s other side
The audit gives reasons these funds are still checked:
- Grant money follows the rules of the agencies that give it. Those agencies can audit it and ask for money back.3
- The county says it has no big expected costs from grant rule problems.3
- Building project funds are controlled through signed contracts, not a yearly budget.1
What the audit does not say
It does not say why each of the 16 funds has no budget.
Questions to ask
- Why does each fund without a yearly budget not have one, by the county’s account?
- How does the commissioners court review spending from those funds?
Changes to this page
- Nov. 2, 2026: Added questions to ask.
- Nov. 2, 2026: Added the state flood-mapping grant.
- Nov. 2, 2026: New page.
Footnotes
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Williamson County, Texas, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for fiscal 2025, Note 5, “Stewardship, Compliance, and Accountability,” Budgetary Information, p.47: budget enacted by ordinance by Sept. 30; legal level of control is the department; revisions that change a department’s total need Commissioners’ approval; appropriations lapse at year end; capital projects controlled “through legally binding construction contracts”; the 16 funds without legally adopted budgets are listed; “budget and actual comparisons do not include these funds.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6
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Same report, Statement of Revenues, Expenditures, and Changes in Fund Balances – Governmental Funds, p.26, Grants column: total expenditures $49,840,994. Note 1 describes the Grants Fund as “federal, state, and private monies provided for the enhancement of programs not fully funded by the County.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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Same report, Note 19, “Commitments and Contingencies,” State and Federal Grant Programs, p.72: costs are “subject to audit and adjustment by the grantor agencies”; “there are no significant contingent liabilities relating to compliance.” ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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Same report, management’s discussion and analysis: “The Grants Fund has a zero-fund balance … Cash and investments for the Grant Fund are $57.0 million.” ↩
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Williamson County, Texas, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for fiscal 2025, Note 19, “Williamson County Floodplain Mapping Project,” p.72: 2021 grant from the Texas Water Development Board for the Atlas 14 Floodplain Mapping project, financial assistance “not to exceed approximately $4,600,000”; funds placed in a trust account under the County’s name, “but the TWDB holds the rights to those funds and the funds are only disbursed to the County as funds are expensed”; “The County spent approximately $261,883 of the grant funds in the current year leaving a grant balance of $366,847.” ↩