Maverick County Commissioners Court adopts 2016 Tax Rate of $0.542309 per $100 Property Valuation, fail to take into calculation the $3,040,863 Sales Taxes collected in 2015 & fail to adopt 2016-2017 Fiscal Year Budget

By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2016

After a marathon special meeting that lasted five and one-half hours, Maverick County Commissioners Court adopted an official 2016 tax rate of $.0542309 per $100 ad valorem property value at their Monday, October 3, 2016 meeting by a unanimous vote upon coming out into Open Session from a five hour long Executive Session, failing to take into account the controversial $3,040,863 (Million) in sales taxes collected in 2015 by Maverick County for purposes of payment of Maintenance and Operation expenses in determining the 2016 Official Tax Rate and failed to take action on the approval of a 2016-2017 Fiscal Year Budget for Maverick County deciding to tackle the budget to a future Commissioners Court meeting  in the future.

Maverick County Commissioners Court failed to adopt the 2016 Tax Rate before the September 30, 2016 deadline required by law, limiting their options to either adopt the 2015 Tax Rate or the 2016 Effective Tax Rate, whichever is lower.  Commissioners Court are under the impression that they adopted the 2016 Effective Tax Rate of $0.542309 as the lower option of the two, but did not take into consideration the $3,040,863 in sales taxes collected in 2015 into their calculation.

Although Maverick County Commissioners Court adopted an official 2016 Tax Rate of $0.542309 per $100 valuation, their failure to take into consideration the $3.040,863 in sales taxes collected in 2015 in calculating the 2016 effective tax rate causes the adopted tax rate of $0.542309 per $100 valuation to exceed the eight percent allowed by law without the need for a tax rollback election, culminating in the adoption of a 2016 Tax Rate subject to a taxpayer’s petition for a rollback election and for an Injunction against Maverick County from issuing and mailing out its 2016 tax statements to property owners with taxable property.

During the Visitors Recognition agenda in the October 3, 2016 special meeting, concerned Maverick County property owner and taxpayer Etelvina Felan presented Maverick County Commissioners Court a document entitled “2016 Additional Sales Tax Rate Worksheet,” detailing step by step of what the 2016 Tax Rate for Maverick County should be if the $3,040,863 Million in sales taxes collected in 2015 are incorporated into the calculation of the tax rate resulting in $0.456845 per $100 valuation instead of $0.542309 adopted by Commissioners Court, a difference of $.085464 cents per $100 valuation.  Felan requested Commissioners Court that they adopt a 2016 tax rate of $0.45845 per $100 valuation.

Another Maverick County Taxpayer told the Eagle Pass Business Journal that the correct legal 2016 Tax Rate for Maverick County should be $0.412614 per $100 valuation after taking into consideration the $3,040,863 sales taxes in 2015 collected by Maverick County, a difference of $0.12965 cents per $100 valuation.  The local taxpayer noted that the tax rate decrease of $.12965 cents may cause a loss of over $3.8. Million in tax revenues in 2016 to Maverick County, delivering a catastrophic blow to the County budget which may require Commissioners Court to cut employees, benefits, programs, road and bridge services, law enforcement services, trash collection services,  fire protection and emergency services, salary reductions, and other County services.

Both taxpayers proposed 2016 Tax Rate take into consideration the controversial $3.040,863 sales taxes collected by Maverick County while the Commissioner Court adopted tax rate of $0.542309 per $100 valuation does not take into account the sale taxes in the calculation dictated by state law, causing the Commissioners Court tax rate to exceed the eight percent allowed by law and subject it to a taxpayers petition for a tax roll back election and an Injunction against the issuance and mailing of the County’s 2016 tax statements.

A key mistake undertaken by the Maverick County Commissioners Court in adopting the official 2016 Tax Rate of $0.542309 per $100 valuation at their October 3, 2016 special meeting is that they failed to approve a 2016-2017 Fiscal Year Budget for Maverick County before adoption of the tax rate as required by law, questioning the legality of the new 2016 Tax Rate adopted.

Since the 2016 Tax Rate adopted by Maverick Commissioners Court exceeds the maximum of eight percent tax increase  allowed before a tax rollback petition and election may be requested by taxpayers, Maverick County Commissioners Court will have to hold two public hearings, publish notice in a local newspaper, and ratify the tax rate within five days after its adoption.

While Maverick County Commissioners Court thought they were solving the current tax rate fiasco by adopting a 2016 Tax Rate at the October 3rd meeting, their action taken only raises more legal questions than the ones its solves.

Concerned Maverick County taxpayers cited Section 26.05(e) of the Texas Tax Code which provides that “a person who owns taxable property is entitled to an Injunction restraining the collection of the taxes by a taxing unit in which the property is taxable if the taxing unit has not complied with the requirements of this section and the failure to comply was not in good faith. An Action to enjoin the collection of taxes must be filed prior to the date a t axing unit delivers substantially all of its tax bills.”