A.D. Ibarra -

Eagle Pass

The Special Meeting of Maverick County Commissioner's Court held on Monday began as a formal introduction by District Judge Amado Abascal of new County Auditor Fidencio Ortiz who will work to steer the County into smoother waters as the proposed new budget for the Fiscal Year 2013 was not approved on this day as previously reported. Ortiz comes in at a pivotal time in County financial history as they attempt to attack the existing deficit with budget cuts, layoffs, potential reimbursements and unfortunately for the common layperson and the taxpayers of Maverick County, a proposed tax increase. After the introduction of the new apointee, former Fire Chief Guadalupe Cardona approached Commisioner's Court and attempted to make his case against that very issue by giving those gathered a brief history lesson on what Maverick County used to look like many years ago. He mentioned that his family used to live on Kifuri and the only things in that area of Maverick County were two ranches and what he called a <Brecha>, or man-made walkway, not even a road much less Eidson Road or the Siete Lomas subdivision which exists today. El Indio Highway was a thing of the future in those times. He also mentioned that back then they would never ask anything from the County. He remembers that 80% of the general population were migrants and he made sure to mention the fact that migrants built this community when our community was a land of in what he termed 'Puros arroyos'. Since then our County has grown and instead of progress, he feels the County has regressed and continues to lose machinery and are completing fewer projects every year even mentioning that the County should consider closing the Road & Bridge Department for six months in order to save money due to this lack of progress. Needless to say, Cardona asked the County to not raise taxes, to look for other alternatives for raising the capital to get the County out of debt. In a way, Cardona's wishes were answered albeit temporarily as Commissioner's Court tabled the entire agenda until Thursday to give the new auditor time to look over the proposed budget while also holding back on the discussion and possible action of adoption of the new tax rates which evidently will be approved as a breakdown was handed out as to the amount of revenue generated with and without the proposed tax increase was handed to commissioners. The Budget Workshop ended at 6:12 P.M. and the meeting was adjourned.