In her letter, Maldonado-Guerra states that Commissioners Court did not cut expenses for the Tom Bowles Detention Center despite undercollecting revenue for two years, causing cuts to other public services and a need to borrow to continue operating. 

The letter reads as follows: 

 “The County Auditor’s January 2017 monthly report says that the County is on track to undercollect revenue by over $800,000 this current fiscal year on the Tom Bowles Jail Prisoner Care revenue line item.  This would be news if the Tom Bowles Jail operation had not also undercollected revenue last fiscal year by over $2 million. The Auditor’s August 2016 monthly report said for the eighth month last fiscal year that undercollected revenue for the Prisoner Care line item was growing and “The budget is based on collecting 100% of the revenue budgeted.  In other words, there must be a corresponding reduction in the budget now by the same amount of expenditures.  The budget officer must take action now.”  No action was taken by the Court to cut Tom Bowles Jail expenses last fiscal year by the amount of undercollected revenue and the result was a net loss of about $2 million for the Tom Bowles Jail operation.

According to the Auditor’s September 2016 monthly report, the County was able to reduce this and other General Fund losses last fiscal year by transferring over $940,000 from old County bond issues and other sources into the General Fund. Together with this, cuts to other public services were not enough so the Auditor’s report noted how the County had to borrow to continue operating “The County issued a Tax Exempt Note in August in the amount of $1.3 million to ensure that sufficient funds are available to cover necessary expenditures. While some unexpected revenue sources reduced the amount that was utilized it was necessary in September as there were no other sources of funds.”  

The FYE 9/30/17 budget showed expenses of $3,040,000 for the Tom Bowles Jail. If on track to reach this amount, this would mean the County is heading for a net loss of about $1.6 million to the General Fund from the Tom Bowles Jail operation alone this fiscal year due to $800,000 more budgeted expenses than revenue in addition to the $800,000 revenue undercollection. The Local Government Code requires the County Judge and Auditor to only include expenses in the annual budget which are supported by revenues. Considering the Tom Bowles Jail only collected about $600,000 last fiscal year, the $2,240,000 included as Tom Bowles Jail revenue in this fiscal year’s annual budget was clearly made up out of the air. After last year’s lessons, the County’s decision to voluntarily do this again while putting more expenses than revenues shows both incompetence and no concern with budget decisions' impact on the public. 

If the budget officer is going to be allowed to include any revenue he feels like in the Tom Bowles Jail budget and ignore calls for cuts to the Tom Bowles Jail to operate on a balanced budget, then is the Court’s plan this year to do the same thing as last year by cutting other services and borrowing again to make ends meet?  Don’t you think state law requires a balanced annual budget to prevent this exact situation and that using fake revenues to keep expenses high directly undermines its purpose?  

Roxana Maldonado-Guerra

Maverick County Taxpayer”