Maverick County denies Taxpayers public information records and requests Attorney General Opinion not to disclose 2016 County’s Effective Tax Rate Worksheets
By: Miguel Munoz, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2016
Maverick County Commissioners Court by and through its Maverick County General Counsel Woody Wilson of San Antonio, Texas replied to concerned Maverick County Taxpayer Ethelvina Felan’s written request to County Tax-Assessor Collector Isamari S. Villarreal for public records concerning all of the drafts and final version of the 2016 Effective Tax Rate Worksheets (including Additional 2016 Sales Tax Worksheets Sections) from September 7, 2016 through October 12, 2016 which are located in the County Tax-Assessor Collector’s Office in order to make copies thereof with a denial of these public records by electing instead to request the Texas Attorney General an Opinion that these records are not to be produced because they are allegedly exempt.
Maverick County “considers some of the information Ms. Felan requests to be exempt from public disclosure by virtue of the following legal exceptions and/or Texas Public Information Act exceptions: confidential information; confidential by law; litigation exception; certain legal matters exception; agency memoranda exception; and attorney-client and work product privileges” wrote Maverick County General Counsel Woody Wilson to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on November 3, 2016.
Wilson also wrote that Maverick “County requests that the Attorney General render a decision regarding Ms. Felan’s request under the Texas Public Information Act since said information is exempt from disclosure pursuant to the exceptions proffered herein.” Wilson adds that he will provide a thorough legal analysis why the public information is exempt from disclosure.
This whole issue arose when Ethelvina Felan and other concerned Maverick County taxpayers discovered and advised Maverick County Commissioners Court that the 2016 Tax Rate approved by them on September 12, 2016 was incorrect because it failed to include $3,040,860 (Million) in sales taxes collected in 2015 used for maintenance and operation in calculating the tax rate of $0.5850 per $100 valuation of property.
Maverick County Commissioners Court, composed of County Judge David R. Saucedo and Commissioners Jerry Morales, Rosy Cantu, Pete Venegas, and Roberto Ruiz, agreed with Felan and concerned taxpayers and rescinded their previously approved tax rate of $0.5850 at a September 29th meeting, causing Maverick County to miss the September 30th deadline to adopt a tax rate pursuant to the Truth in Taxation law under the Texas Tax Code.
On October 3, 2016, Maverick County Commissioners Court adopted a new 2016 Tax Rate of $0.542309 per $100 valuation of property, but once again Felan and concerned taxpayers advised Commissioners Court that this tax rate was unlawful because they failed to state publicly what amount of that rate was for maintenance and operations and what amount was for payment of debt, causing Commissioners Court to have to hold another meeting on October 11, 2016 to adopt a corrected or revised tax rate for 2016.
On October 11, 2016, Maverick County Commissioners Court adopted the same tax rate of $0.542309 per $100 valuation of property establishing that $0.453738 would be for maintenance and operations and $0.088571 for debt service. Felan and concerned taxpayers raised the issue once again that Commissioners Court had failed to demonstrate to the public that they actually took into consideration of the $3,040,860 in sales taxes collected in 2015 for use in maintenance and operations. Commissioners Court to date has failed to provide its taxpayers and citizens an answer whether they took the $3,040,860 sales taxes into the calculation of the revised adopted tax rate of $0.542309 per $100 valuation.
Some taxpayers allege that Maverick County Commissioners Court did not take into consideration the $3,040,860 in sales taxes collected in 2015 in calculating the revised tax rate of $0.542309 because if they had the revised tax rate should have been an estimated $0.41996 per $100 valuation in property, a difference of $0.122349 (12.23 cents) and a loss of over $3 Million in total revenues to be collected for the 2016-2017 County Budget.
The requested 2016 Effective Tax Rate Worksheets, including the Sales Tax Rate sections, will answer the question whether Maverick County Commissioners Court used the $3,040,860 in sales taxes collected in 2015 and used for maintenance and operations in determining and adopting the County’s 2016 Tax Rate of $0.542309 per $100 valuation of property. This is the whole issue being contested by Maverick County Commissioners Court by requesting the County’s General Counsel Woody Wilson to deny Ethelvina Felan’s public information request of October 20th by requesting the Attorney General for an Opinion that said public records are exempt from being disclosed to taxpayers.
Ethelvina Felan and other taxpayers are deeply saddened and concerned that Maverick County Commissioners Court prefer to deny public records from citizens and seek an Attorney General opinion to deny disclosure of these simple Truth in Taxation public documents required under the Texas Tax Code.
Other taxpayers note that Maverick County Commissioners Court has once again opted to spend tens of thousands of valuable County taxpayers money on legal expenses to deny citizens their Truth in Taxation public records, leading some to question what are they trying to hide or delay from taxpayers.
Maverick County Commissioners Court request for an Attorney General’s opinion on state mandated and required Truth in Taxation public records under the Texas Tax Code will delay the issue for another 90-120 days until the Attorney General rules on Maverick County’s opinion request.
