Maverick County Citizens Object to Proposed County Tax Rate Increase
By: Jose G. Landa, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2016
Maverick County Commissioners Court held a public hearing and regular meeting on Monday, September 12, 2016, to discuss the proposed 2016-2017 Fiscal Year Budget and Tax rate increase of 8.3% .
Maverick County Judge David R. Saucedo opened up the meeting by acknowledging those persons who had requested to speak during the public hearing and citizens communication agenda of the regular meeting.
Christopher Hiller, a Maverick County taxpayer, stated that his concerns were on the proposed tax rate increase being considered by Commissioners Court and that he was totally against any tax increase.
“ Over the past 10 years, Maverick County has increased taxes from 2006 to 2016 for a total 66% tax rate increase. I feel that another 8% will be detrimental to a lot of people in this community. If you look at the 66% tax increase over the past 10 years, it is quite an amazing number.” said Hiller.
“Yet alone back in 2010 to 2011 there was a 27% tax rate increase, and I just come as a resident of Maverick County, hopefully speaking for a lot of residents in this county, that I hope you take into consideration and not increase our taxes.” added Hiller.
A look into the Maverick County tax rate shows that during 2010 , Maverick County’s tax rate was at $0.4019 per every $ 100 valuation and jumped to $0.5120 per every $100 valuation in 2011. This increase signified a 27.3 % increase from one fiscal year to the next more than allowed by law. This type of action is basically an increase passed on by a previous administration and the lack of participation of county residents to monitor their government and their monies. The increase was higher than the rate allowed by law, which would have been subject to a tax rollback election but no one filed the petition or protested.
During 2012 to 2014, there was a tax relief of some sort as the Maverick County tax rate was lowered from $0.5810 to $0.5580 and again a minimal lowering from 2013 to 2014 from $0.5580 to $0.5481 per every $100 valuation. These decreases were subjected and diminished by overall property valuation increases on an steady basis for the past years by the Maverick County Appraisal District.
Maverick County Commissioners Court did increase its tax rate by 6.7% from 2014 ( $0.5481 per every $100) to $0.5850 per every $100 valuation in 2015. The county taxpayer will be subjected to another tax increase of 8% this coming fiscal year in addition to unconscionable high ad valorem property tax appraisals by the County Appraisal District.
Maverick County taxpayer and retired U.S. Veteran, Albert Daniel, representing the Maverick County Taxpayers Oversight Organization also addressed the proposed tax rate increase issue.
“My concern is the taxes and the proposed increase. Fortunately, I don’t pay any taxes but I do see the ill result of it on some of the people losing their properties. I just saw an older couple lose their house and I think if it were possible , you could control the taxes a little bit better.” said Daniel.
Community Activist and taxpayer advocate, Juanita Martinez, also addressed Maverick County Commissioners Court concerning their proposed tax rate increase by stating “ become real public servants and give up your salaries.” Martinez questioned Commissioners Court reasoning for raising the proposed tax rate when the County Appraisal District already did them a favor by raising every one’s ad valorem property appraisals exceedingly high, which will result in higher tax revenues to be collected by the County.
“I am here so you all can enlighten us as to where is this tax increase coming from and who is asking for it. I speak for some of the people on fixed incomes, some of the people that get their fixed check every month (elderly), and so I’m here to get better informed as to where this tax increase is coming from and exactly what we as citizen’s can do about it and is their anything we can do about it.” said Martinez.
Maria Laura Forth also spoke against the proposed Maverick County Tax Rate increase, stating that its unfortunate that the taxes imposed are due to certain circumstances that put the community residents in limbo. “We are a poor county with an average of salaries in the lower levels where the professional job/opportunities are limited and our structure caters mostly to the commercial side of things(Minimum Wages) and therefore I believe we must look for other options so that people who work here, leave their monies here. We can’t be depending solely on the people who come only to buy(Commercial) but expand our opportunities.” said Ford in Spanish.
Forth suggested that an expansion of opportunities from local government agencies were necessary and needed to be implemented rather than just the normal dependency upon taxes, tolls, and sales taxes. Forth noted that our community (county) would be better off with real opportunities of impact such as industry growth, thus creating real job growth beyond the minimum wage impact which continues contributing to SNAP and Welfare dependency in our community.
According to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (THHSC) most recent records, there are 16,872 people in Maverick County receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, also known as Food Stamps, as of October 2015. This rate is an increase from the previous two years of 2013 and 2014 which had a total of 16,174 Maverick County people receiving SNAP benefits while in 2013 there were 14,206 people.
The THHSC reports reflect that during the past three years (2013-2015) Maverick Countians receiving SNAP benefits have increased after a decline in 2012.
Data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission shows that the number of SNAP benefit recipients in 2015 (16,872) in Maverick County is the third largest number of recipients dependent on food stamps during the past ten years. Only 2009 had 17,696 recipients and 2010 had 17,635 recipients as having the largest number of SNAP beneficiaries in Maverick County during the past 10 years.
Among the SNAP recipients in Maverick County during 2015, THHSC reports show that there were 5,852 people between the ages of 5 to17 years old as the largest number of recipients with 5,852 followed by 5,572 people between the ages of 18 to 59 years old, then 2,402 of ages between infants to 5 years old, 2,451 between the ages of 65 and older, and 502 between the ages of 60 to 64 years old.
The high incidence of SNAP recipients in Maverick County indicates a large percentage of poverty and low salary wages in the community. Maverick County is one of the top 10 poorest counties in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In June 2013, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported over 21,000 persons in Maverick County as living below the poverty level, which 83% of these people receive SNAP benefits through the Lone Star Card.
The increase of 2015 SNAP benefits recipients in Maverick County is also an indication of rising poverty levels and greater population growth within the community. This increases in poverty levels surely challenge anticipated gowths in tax rates and other actions which can be seen as intuitive proceedings and taxation at the local level by governing agencies.
Judge Saucedo thanked those persons who participated and raised their concerns.
Maverick County Commissioner Pct 1. Jerry Morales stated that based on the figures that Mr. Christopher Hiller had provided, it did show a tax rate increase of a whopping 54.62% came under the old guard(administration) and not the current one.
“54.62% came in under Pepe Aranda’s tenure, the difference came in under this administration which is what we are faced ourselves with. We don’t like it a bit when we have to raise taxes but when you look at the whole picture, you are looking at almost 55% under the previous administration. I think it’s important that the community see the whole numbers and not just what’s going on today.” said Morales.
Judge Saucedo then cleared up that if you look at the recent taxing years there has been a lowering of taxes at the county level.
“So when there is an opportunity to give the taxpayer a break , we have done it.” said Judge Saucedo.
“What’s good is good and what’s bad and sometimes what has to be done has to be done but I think we have been responsible with the adjustments that we’ve had to make over the years.”added Judge Saucedo.
Saucedo then thanked the participating residents and invited them to stay and continue participating in the tax rate increase public hearing and the 2017 Maverick County budget workshop.
Commissioners Court proceeded to hold their 2017 Maverick County Tax Rate Increase Public Hearing and the new 2017 proposed budget workshop as well.
The county continues to push forward and is expected to approve the new 2017 Maverick County budget and the new 2017 tax rate with the proposed 8.5% tax rate increase next week.
Some of the largest increases in the new proposed budget are for the Maverick County Sheriff Department and jail. Records show that in the 2015-2016 fiscal year, county jail expenditures were reported at $2,514,955 (Million) and now for the 2016 -2017 fiscal year its proposed at $2,999, 682 (Million) . Total expenditures for Interest and Sinking are expected to be at $4,501,503 an decrease from the proposed amount in 2015-2016 of $4,610,082
The County is proposing a tax rate collection revenues for 2017 of $13,064,425 (Million) compared to the current fiscal year 2016 of $12,040,846 (Million), an 8.5 % increase from one taxing year to the next.
Maverick County taxpayers are encouraged to attend and express their public opinion on the proposed 2016-2017 Fiscal Year Budget and Tax Rate Increase at the next Maverick County Commissioners Court meeting.
