Maverick County Commissioners Court to Increase Ad Valorem Property Taxes for 2016-2017 Fiscal Year

By: Jose G. Landa, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2016

Maverick County Commissioners Court will be seeking to increase Maverick County taxpayers’ ad valorem property taxes for fiscal year 2016-2017 from the current tax rate of .5850 cents per $100 valuation to the proposed .586535 cents per $100 valuation, according to the proposed 2016-2017 Maverick County Budget filed on July 29, 2016.

The proposed tax rate increase by Maverick County will raise an additional $1,023,577 (Million) in property taxes in 2016-2017 than the current year, of which $273,546 are attributed to new properties added to the tax roll.

Maverick County Commissioners Court is currently the only governmental entity seeking a tax increase over the current tax rate after the historic record increase of ad valorem property tax appraisals performed by the Maverick County Appraisal District for 2016.

The City of Eagle Pass, Texas City Council has announced that they will keep the City’s tax rate the same as this year, as well as the Maverick County Hospital District Board of Directors approved at its August 30th Board meeting to keep the same tax rate as this year: 0.9 cents per $100 valuation.

The Eagle Pass Independent School District Board of Trustees is the only local governmental entity to decrease or reduce the ad valorem property tax rate for 2016-2017 by .00648 cents per $100 valuation from the current tax rate of $1.16191 cents per $100 valuation to the newly approved tax rate of $1.15543 cents per $100 valuation.  The Eagle Pass Independent School District Board of Trustees already approved the tax rate decrease for 2016-2017 at its August 16, 2016 Board meeting, said EPISD Deputy Superintendent for Business & Finance Ismael Mijares.

Former Eagle Pass Fire Chief, Maverick County Fire Chief, and Maverick County Road and Bridge Department Supervisor Guadalupe Cardona was the lone taxpayer to present himself at the September 1, 2016 Commissioners Court meeting to protest the increase of the ad valorem tax rate by Commissioners Court for the upcoming 2016-2017  fiscal year, arguing that taxpayers had already been hit hard with the record-setting ad valorem property tax appraisals by the Maverick County Appraisal District and that many citizens are seniors, disabled, or living on a fixed income whose property tax values had been unfairly increased and any County tax increase will cause many of them to not be able to afford their 2016-2017 ad valorem property taxes and possibly lose their family homesteads that have been for many generations within the family.   Cardona requested Commissioners Court on behalf of all Maverick County taxpayers not to increase the County ad valorem tax rate for 2016-2017 fiscal year.

Maverick County Commissioners Court is composed of County Judge David R. Saucedo and Commissioners Roberto Ruiz, Jerry Morales, Pete Venegas, and Rosy Cantu.