By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Val Verde County Commissioners Court members have voted not to increase the county’s property tax rate for next year, despite worries about revenue shortfalls caused by the state’s efforts to curb an ongoing influx of immigrants.
The court discussed the tax rate during its special meeting Monday, Aug. 9.
County Tax Assessor Collector Elodia Garcia presented information on the tax rate to the court.
The current year’s county property tax rate is .5121 per $100 of valuation, and the proposal before the court is to maintain that rate through next year.
“Our current rate is .5121 . . . What will it generate in additional revenue if we hold our current tax rate?” County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton asked.
“Around $700,000; $786,000,” County Auditor Matthew Weingardt replied.
“And you’re comfortable with that, judge?” Nettleton asked County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr.
“We looked at the numbers, when we put our numbers together for the budget, the one I’m going to present to you all, and I think we can get it done with that,” Owens replied.
The court discussion then moved to a lengthy conversation about the money the county may lose due to Operation Lone Star, a state initiative begun in response to the high numbers of immigrants that have been entering the U.S. in Val Verde County and other Texas counties on the border with Mexico in January.
Nettleton asked for a dollar amount of the county’s current revenue losses as a result of the state operations.
“So as of mid-March to (Aug. 8), we’ve lost $203,490, and we’re keeping a daily tab as the increase goes up,” Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez told the court.
“And that’s just jail costs?” Nettleton asked.
“Those are funds that we’re losing because we’re over (the daily state prisoner allotment)” Martinez replied.
“And that does not include the additional costs, which is your deputies, their time, that doesn’t include anything else,” Nettleton said.
“We’re at about $40,000 a month,” Owens added.
“Judge, what would you call our total loss on this situation?” County Commissioner Pct. 1 Martin Wardlaw asked.
“On the jail?” Owens asked.
“On the whole thing,” Wardlaw replied.
“That’s what Beau’s trying to come up with right now. On a monthly basis, we’re at $40,000-odd,” Owens replied.
“Well, in your estimation, judge, what do think we’ll be able to get back (from the state)?” Wardlaw asked.
Owens shrugged and said, “What are we going to get back? You might as well throw a dart at the wall over there, and just pick a number.”
“You’re not counting on anything?” Wardlaw asked.
“In this budget, I’m not counting on anything, bringing anything back. It’s scary, because (when) Gov. Abbott was here, the question was asked, ‘From here forward, will we be reimbursed?’ And the answer was yes. The question was also asked, ‘Between here and going back until March?’ and the answer was, ‘Get those costs to (the state), and we’ll see about getting you a check’.
“But we have not seen any monies at all . . . The monies that we want to get reimbursed on, even though they might not be current today because they change every day, every week, those numbers were turned in. When you ask me how much are we going to get reimbursed, commissioners, I don’t know. I really don’t know. It’s pretty scary,” Owens said.
Weingardt assured the court that the county continues to have “a healthy fund balance,” and Owens said if no reimbursement from the state is made for the money the county loses, a property tax increase could be on the table next year.
Nettleton said, “This court has worked real hard and you’ve worked real hard to get us a decent fund balance, and I don’t want to see us deplete the fund balance, . . . and I don’t want to do a tax increase in any form or fashion, but the taxpayers need to understand that there is a cost associated with this operation, and it is costing us a lot of money, and we haven’t even started (figuring) the cost in the county attorney’s office, the district attorney’s office, the court systems, the sheriff’s office, the county clerk’s office and the district clerk’s. Those costs haven’t even been associated into this operation yet because they’ve just now gotten to the parts where they’re doing the prosecutions.
“We’ve got people sitting in jail that are costing us money every single day, and I just want to make sure that when we adopt this rate we’re going to be able to function this year, because it seems like every time we think we’ve got it figured out, there’s a new crisis,” Nettleton said.
“I just think the taxpayers need to understand that there’s no way out. Unfortunately, we’re a border county, and we have to deal with this until it gets fixed. We have no other choice. We can’t just quit,” County Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores said.
After further discussion, Nettleton then made a motion to adopt a proposed county tax rate of .5121, with County Commissioner Pct. 2 Juan Carlos Vazquez giving the second.
Wardlaw, Flores and Owens also voted to approve the proposed tax rate.
A public hearing on the tax rate was set by the court for 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31. The court also has indicated it will take a final vote on the tax rate during that same meeting.
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