The El Paso County Commissioners Court voted last week on a tax rate of $0.458889 per $100 in assessed property value. This is an increase of about three cents over the current rate of $0.426323 per $100, and about one penny over the rate of $0.452694 when I took office.
To be clear, we understand that people may be less concerned with rates than with what they pay out of pocket. For the owner of a home valued at $200,000, this rate will cost $137 more a year, or $11.48 (monthly).
This difficult decision was made to ensure the continued provision of essential services, such as sheriff patrols (which are not required by the state, but which the county understands is a critical function) and access to parks. We also want to make sure we have a healthy reserve so that we are financially prepared for any future unexpected events that may have a drastic negative impact on our budget, such as another pandemic or economic downturn.
County budgets are mostly controlled by the state, which often directs certain actions for which local taxpayers are forced to pay, and in recent years it has increasingly burdened our constituents for its priorities. For example, the state of Texas has cost local taxpayers tens of millions of dollars for its foray into immigration enforcement. Over the past four years alone, El Paso County taxpayers have lost at least $40 million for Gov. Abbott’s political game with immigration enforcement, Operation Lone Star (OLS). OLS is an anti-immigrant initiative aimed at criminalizing border crossers, throwing them into our jails. This costly endeavor is less about public safety and more about political theater.
Texas’ billions of dollars spent on OLS did not affect overall crime rates, or availability of drugs, most of which come through ports of entry anyway. That money could have been spent on education or health care; instead, the state’s unnecessary spending binge imposed huge costs on El Paso taxpayers. When the federal government arrests people, it must jail them or pay someone else to do it. When the state arrested people under OLS, they took them to the El Paso jail, forcing us to foot the bill.
In addition to absorbing OLS, we also have had to account for other state-forced spending. For example, SB9 during the Texas Legislature’s past regular session changed conditions of release for people charged with a crime. Based on those conditions, people will be staying in our jail longer, leading to increased costs for local taxpayers — potentially, up to $12 million a year.
State unfunded mandates are not new, but it’s getting worse. Though the state cannot legally assess its own ad valorem property tax, it’s time to start calling a duck a duck. Fifty four percent of your county budget is spent on what the state orders, and another 17% is spent on support services for what the state orders. This is more than 70 percent of your county budget for what really should be called a state property tax, disguised as a county tax, most of it being spent on arresting, prosecuting, and incarcerating individuals. Even a large amount of the so-called discretionary portion of the county budget is spent similarly, including $24 million for sheriff patrols and $10.7 million for criminal investigations.
El Paso County has managed all of these challenges. In the previous 10 budget cycles, Commissioners Court has reduced the tax rate or kept it level during eight of those years.
One way the county has absorbed the additional costs of state operations such as OLS is to use its reserves. However, those reserves are running low — down to about $16 million, or less than 4% of the General Fund of about $467 million. The tax rate approved Aug. 18 will raise an additional $28 million, and I will advocate for replenishing those reserves to bring them close to 10% of the overall budget. This means that the county can pay less interest on debt and be better prepared when revenues slow, the feds slash their contributions to counties, or the state pushes further mandates.
Ultimately, a budget is a reflection of our values. In November, voters approved $155 million for parks, animal shelter and medical examiner facility; this makes up half of the increase taxpayers will see on their 2026 bills. These are things we need, and value, and that add to our budget. We also added $5.2 million from previously approved collective bargaining agreements for law enforcement; to their credit, the unions representing sheriff’s department officers did not push to reopen the contract for further salary increases this year. We did not increase non-law enforcement salaries, and we have implemented a 5% cut to all departments, as well as a 16-week hiring freeze.
This is the deliberate approach we have taken since I’ve been in office — carefully managing debt and county operations and balancing our constituents’ need for services with the responsibility of fiscal discipline. This is about long-term sustainability, ensuring the county remains on a stable financial path so future generations aren’t forced to face even larger tax hikes or service cuts.
We provide vital services the public needs and wants — from parks and playgrounds to records of births, deaths, marriages and property transactions, from courts and jails and patrols to roads and flood control, from providing seniors with meals to serving rural transit and libraries – and we comply with state funding requirements. I signed up for this job to make programmatic and budget decision that benefit our community. Local government has a critical role in making El Paso a great place to live, and I’m proud to represent Precinct 2 on the El Paso County Commissioners Court.
David Stout is the El Paso County Commissioner for Precinct 2.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: OPINION: Saddled by forced expenditures by the state, El Paso County approves tax rate
Reporting by David Stout / El Paso Times
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