April 20, 2026 - The Shelby County Commissioners learned of a new feature to alert taxpayers of delinquencies via text message during their meeting held April 8, 2026.
Kevin Dutton, representative of Linebarger, Goggan, Blair, and Samson LLP, provided details to the commissioners on text message notifications to individuals regarding delinquent taxes.
“The legislature enabled text message collecting for delinquent taxes, and there are several reasons that they've done that. One, everybody lives on their phone very few people even have home landlines now so when we skip trace we'll get these landline numbers but nobody answers,” said Dutton.
Dutton stated most people get all their mail that they think is relevant by email, which results in a lot of return mail or unanswered mail on tax collections. He said that doesn’t mean there isn’t good response from their mailings, and they will continue to send normal mailings.
“This went into effect September the 1st, [2025]. We've got our technology now where we can start doing that. And so we're going around and asking the tax collectors for their permission to do it,
which is all we really have to have,” said Dutton. “We don't have to have the commissioners’ court, but she wanted me to give y'all the information before she pulled the trigger.”
Dutton elaborated on the common use of smart phones among the public and the extensive reliance on texting as a means of communication.
“Everybody communicates that way. We found that text messages get more looked at than people opening mail. They'll open it and look at it, and so we decided we were going to do that,” said Dutton.
“Scammers” were considered when preparing the system for text communication and Dutton said that they devised the use of a short-code that displays as five digits at the top of the recipients text message to indicate that it’s real, as well as Linebarger, Goggan, Blair and Sampson branding at the bottom of the message.
“What you'll notice about scams also is they don't have branding. We will have the Linebarger brand down at the bottom of ours. We'll have a link for them to make a payment. We'll have a toll-free callback phone number that they can call and ask questions,” said Dutton. “We’ll also have their account number, so they can click on that and see what we're referring to.”
Dutton explained that attempts are being made to prevent people from being scammed.
“I will tell you, we've ran tests in Smith County that have been highly successful. I don't have the numbers on that yet because it hasn't gotten to me. I do know that we tried it in Van Zandt County three weeks ago and started it. Not tried it, but we started it. We sent out text messages on Monday, on Tuesday, three accounts that we had no contact with by mail or by telephone paid online. So people are going to respond to this.” said Dutton.
Debora Riley, Shelby County Tax-Assessor Collector, said that she has shared information on the Tax Assessor-Collector website about the text notification program. She noted there may be some hesitancy on the part of recipients to even open the text message and she advised they don’t even have to open the message.
“If they receive a text, they don't want to open it, that's fine, it just lets them know that they might need to go check out our online and see if they owe anything or give us a call and we'll be glad to go ahead and look that up for them so they don't actually have to open the text message if they get it,” said Riley.
Riley had a question of her own involving miscommunication, in the event a recipient has no connection to the property involved and they want their number removed.
“There is a toll free number on there that's on the actual text message itself that they can call and make those corrections. Evidently they can text back because we've received some, I’m not going to say them in court, but we've received some ugly text messages,” said Dutton.
Dutton described the cost difference of a text message being three cents to the cost of 85 cents to a dollar utilizing the United States Postal Service. Riley and Dutton clarified for the court that these messages won’t go out this year until July 2026, should they be delinquent.
“Like right now, they have their mailings, I think they had a mailing go out in February, and it didn't include the 2025s because they never include the current year until that first mailing that they do in July,” said Riley. “So that's kind of confusing for people, too, because they see their statement and they think that's everything they owe and they don't realize they owe for the current year. We have that happen a lot.”
No action was necessary to to be taken by the commissioners as the discussion was informational only. The commissioners sounded as though they were in favor of the endeavor.
Karren Price, 123rd Judicial District Attorney, presented the court with the SART (Sexual Assault Response Team) report and she introduced Emma Skinner with the Family Crisis Center in Nacogdoches and Price said she is also their interface with the governor’s office.
“In 2021, the legislature mandated every county create or formulate a SART team, sexual assault response team. It works exactly the same as the Children's Advocacy Center MDT (Multidisciplinary) teams meet, so we have a number of people from around the county the legislature set out exactly who is supposed to be on that team. We are now meeting quarterly y'all may remember we formed it in December of ’22,” said Price.
Price informed the court that in 2026 they have had their first mandated report to the governor's office. Although, the reporting was a little late due to new legislation enacted in 2025, Price explained that Skinner was able to help resolve that late entry as a result of her interface with the governor’s office.
“The goal of the teams is to increase reporting, because we are under reporting in that area of crime,” said Price. “We need to get better at not only encouraging young men and women who are sexually assaulted to come forward, tell us about that so that we can help you get out of that situation.”
Price described a case pending on the court docket right now that occurred in 2025, and she said she doesn’t know how the woman involved survived. By Price’s estimation, and she said by the estimation of medical staff, the woman should not have survived.
“So those things happen in our own backyards, and I know that you all are as devastated to hear that, as I am to report it,” said Price. “Hopefully the formation, and the regular quarterly meetings of a team that's dedicated to thinking about making people understand how important it is for us to report it, so that we can prosecute those cases. It's been a long time since we actually prosecuted a sexual assault of an adult in Shelby County and we need to be better and we're gonna be better.”
Skinner explained for the court that the purpose of a SART is to support adult survivors of sexual assault and increase community collaboration. Skinner says this helps survivors heal faster when they have that support from law enforcement, the DA’s office, advocates, and local nurses.
“They are more likely to come forward and report if they know that they will have a listening ear and have support afterwards, and they're also more likely to participate in the prosecution process,” said Skinner. “These cases are more likely to go to court and get justice, and put that bad guy away when those survivors know that they have a whole team behind them.”
Skinner highlighted Shelby County is fortunate to have a District Attorney that cares about supporting survivors of sexual assault, as well as the support of law enforcement.
“So this community collaboration really, it doesn't happen by accident. It takes a DA who cares, it takes law enforcement who wants to show up. It's a chance for all of us to just get in the room together and discuss these cases, discuss the changes in the law and make sure that we are all providing services and support in the most trauma-informed way,” said Skinner.
Skinner shared that data was prepared to send to the state, and should bring them into compliance; however, the SART must have the endorsement of the court to move forward to allow them to meet regularly.
“That's really why we're here, just to get y'all on board, hopefully. I really believe in SARTs. We do this in five other counties where I help facilitate and kind of do the admin work. It's really y'all's county that will benefit from this and we're excited about that. This really does work in other counties as well. It's been shown to increase reporting and also increase prosecutions of these cases,” said Skinner.
Commissioner Tom Bellmyer moved to approve the SART report, and Commissioner Stevie Smith seconded his motion. It carried with all in favor.
The commissioners were presented with a quote for $34,550 from Cornerstone Construction project involving the courthouse parking areas. The project began with tree removal.
Commissioner Roscoe McSwain anticipated some discomfort at the courthouse while the project was ongoing, but he felt that the bid was fair.
Commissioner McSwain moved to go forward with the project and approve the contract of $34,550 to be taken out of the courthouse repairs fund. Commissioner Smith seconded his motion and it carried with all in favor.
The meeting adjourned at 10:09am.
Agenda items approved during the meeting include: 1. Minutes of: March 4th Special Meeting, March 11th Regular Meeting, March 18th Special Meeting and March 25th Special Meeting. 2. Pay weekly expenses. 3. Pay current payroll. 4. Officers Report. 5. Lift the burn ban that was put in place on March 27. 6. Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson LLP, to discuss text message alerts for resolving delinquent accounts. 7. SART Report. 8. Quote from Cornerstone Construction for the upgrades to the Courthouse parking areas in the amount of $34,550. 9. Adjourn at 10:09am.
