Maverick County Commissioners Court trump state law adopting 2016 Tax Rate of $0.542309 per $100 Valuation, higher than Rollback Rate & fail to calculate $3,040,863 in Sales Taxes collected in 2015

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

After four meetings and over a month wrangling with the adoption of an official 2016 Tax Rate for Maverick County, Maverick County Commissioners Court chose to trump state law (Texas Tax Code) and their County taxpayers when they finally adopted an official 2016 Tax Rate of $0.542309 per $100 valuation of taxable property at their Tuesday, October 11, 2016 meeting, approving a tax rate that is higher than the Tax Rollback Rate and once again for the fourth time failed to completely take into consideration the amount of $3,040,863 in sales taxes collected in 2015 used for maintenance and operation in calculating the 2016 Tax Rate, according to concerned Maverick County Taxpayers.

Commissioner Gerardo “Jerry” Morales made the motion to adopt the 2016 Tax Rate at $0.542309 per $100 valuation with a debt rate of $0.088571 and a maintenance and operation rate of $0.453738 and Commissioner Pedro “Pete” Venegas, Jr. seconded the motion.  There was no discussion by any Commissioner and the motion was approved unanimously.

Although Maverick County Commissioners Court always considered the sales taxes collected annually in their previous annual Tax Rate calculations such as in 2015, Commissioners Court chose not to calculate the $3,040,863 sales taxes collected in 2015 in establishing the adoption of the 2016 Tax Rate of $0.542309 per $100 valuation, according to concerned Maverick County Taxpayers.  The Texas Tax Code expressly requires that sales taxes collected for maintenance and operation use be included in the calculation of determining the appropriate, legal Tax Rate of a taxing unit such as Maverick County.  It is unknown for what legal reasons Commissioners Court chose not to include the $3,040,863 sales taxes collected in 2015 in calculating the 2016 Tax Rate adopted on October 11th or who recommended that it not be included as in previous years.

According to taxpayers, had Maverick County Commissioners Court taken into consideration the $3,040,863 sales taxes collected in 2015 for maintenance and operation, the 2016 Tax Rate should have been an estimated $0.41996 per $100 valuation instead of the $0.542309 per $100 valuation adopted on October 11th, a difference of 12.2349 cents per $100 valuation.

Taxpayers also noted that the 2016 Tax Rate of $0.542309 per $100 valuation adopted on October 11th by Maverick County Commissioners Court is approximately a 25% tax increase than the maximum allowed tax rollback rate (eight percent) of approximately $0.45 per $100 valuation, a difference of $0.092309 per $100 valuation.

Maverick Commissioners Court also adopted an amendment to the County’s Budget for 2016-2017 previously adopted on September 12, 2016 for the amount of approximately $17.1 Million by reducing it by $1,024,594 due to the lower tax revenues Maverick County is going to collect at the newly adopted rate of $0.542309 instead of the rescinded rate of $0.5850 per $100 valuation.  Maverick County’s 2016-2017 Fiscal Year Budget is estimated to be reduced to $16,000,000 (Million) after three part-time Constable positions at $13,734 were eliminated as well as a Deputy Constable position at $37,273 was eliminated.  Maverick County’s 2016-2017 Fiscal Year Budget would have to be reduced significantly more had Maverick Commissioners Court followed the Texas Tax Code requirement in considering the 2015 sales taxes collected of $3,040,863 in calculating the 2016 Tax Rate, which would have been an estimated $0.41996 per $100 valuation.

Once again, Commissioner Jerry Morales made the motion to approve the amended budget and Commissioner Vengas seconded the motion, which was approved unanimously by Commissioners Court.

Maverick County Tax-Assessor Collector Isamari S. Villarreal has already mailed out the County’s 2016 Tax Statements to taxpayers in the mail with the newly adopted 2016 Tax Rate of $0.542309 per $100 valuation, avoiding the possibility of a citizens’ petition for an injunction against issuance of the 2016 tax bills.

Concerned Maverick County Taxpayers stated that they will be seeking to collect petitions for a tax rollback election since Maverick County Commissioners Court adopted a tax rate increase higher (25%) than the maximum tax rollback rate allowed (8%).

Never in the history of Maverick County had Commissioners Court failed to adopt the Tax Rate before the September 30th state law requirement until this year, causing consternation and concerns among Maverick County taxpayers.  It remains to be seen in the near future the consequences, if any, of Commissioner Court action on adopting late the 2016 tax rate and budget amendment.

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