Maverick County Hospital District Board approves $8,052,027 Million Budget  for 2016-2017 in Split Vote

By: Miguel Munoz, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2016

The Maverick County Hospital District Board of Directors approved its proposed 2016-2017 Fiscal Year Budget of $8,052,027 (Million) on a split vote of 3-1 at its August 30, 2016 meeting held at the District’s Second Floor Conference Room in Eagle Pass, Texas, with Board President Juan Manuel “Chuco” Farias, Vice-President Ron Hixson, and Secretary-Treasurer Humberto Duran voting in favor while Board member Ricardo E. Calderon cast the lone dissenting vote.

The proposed $8,052,027 Million Operating Budget approved by the Board is based on keeping the ad valorem tax rate for 2016-2017 at the same rate as this year, which is 0.9 cents per $100 valuation.  The local hospital district will raise an additional increased property taxes of $175,347 for 2016-2017 by keeping the same tax rate as this year due to the record ad valorem tax appraisals done by the Maverick County Hospital District in 2016.

Board member Calderon opposed the approval of the proposed $8,052,027 Million Operating Budget for 2016-2017 because the District Board and Administration did not make any reductions of the proposed budget despite receiving a projected increase of $175,347 tax revenues in 2016-2017 due to the Maverick County Appraisal District’s historic ad valorem property tax appraisals for 2016.  Calderon argued that Maverick County taxpayers were not getting any tax reduction assistance from the Board by adopting the same tax rate as this year’s and failing to make any budget reductions.

Calderon, instead, argued that the Hospital District should reduce its ad valorem property tax rate by one cent per $100 valuation from 0.9 cents to 0.8 cents per $100 valuation in light of the projected increase tax revenues of $175,347 for 2016-2017 based on the Maverick County Appraisal District’s unconscionable appraisal increases to taxpayers.  In the alternative, Calderon proposed that the Hospital District reduce its proposed 2016-2017 Fiscal Operating Budget by at least three percent as previously done last year in order to provide taxpayers relief.  Calderon noted that the State of Texas was reducing its state agencies’ budgets by five percent and other governmental entities throughout the State of Texas were reducing their proposed operating budgets by the percentage of loss of oil and gas tax revenues.

In an earlier Board budget meeting, Calderon noted that the proposed $8,052,027 Million Fiscal Operating Budget was based on an artificially increased projection of operating revenues of more than $1 Million than the current year’s budget in order to balance it unlike the annual budget deficits incurred by the District, requiring it to use reserve funds to balance the budget. The previous two years the Hospital District incurred deficits of approximately $2 Million and $2.5 Million.

Calderon opined that once a governmental entity approves a larger budget than before, they never reduce it and just keeps growing every year.  Calderon’s arguments to provide relief to Maverick County taxpayers fell on deaf ears as the Board nonetheless approved the larger budget of $8,052,027 Million.

The Hospital District Board previously attempted to approve this same budget at its August 16, 2016 Budget Workshop, actually taking a vote to approve despite Board member Calderon’s advise that the Board cannot take action on a meeting noticed only as a Budget Workshop.  Thus, the Board had to reapprove its Budget again.