You have a “so-called” tax payers association that claims to call for transparency, yet fails to live up to its own expectations and would

The Maverick County Commissioners held a meeting on Monday, August 28, approving the proposal to lower their tax rate by .02 cents per every $100 valuation, going from $0.5437 to $0.5238.

The Maverick County Hospital District proposed and approved a tax increase in recent weeks which will assist the organization in bringing the necessary medical services to the community through their specialist and indigent care services. 

Tuesday April 18, is the day that all Federal Income Taxes are due or must be postmarked by. 

Maverick County Judge David Saucedo has released a copy of the resolution regarding the rollback petition filed on December 22, which stated that the petition was not valid pursuant to Section 26.07 of the Texas Election code because of the shortage of signatures.

Saucedo stated that signatures were determined invalid by the County Election Administrator Roy Schmerber, who found there were “individuals who were not registered, double signatures, dead, and obvious forgeries.” 

“There were also individuals who asked to have their signatures removed, as stated during the citizens to be heard segment of Commissioners Court, but those signatures were not invalidated,” said Saucedo.

The additional signatures that were attempted to be turned in the day of the meeting were also invalidated because they were said to be late.

Saucedo said according to the Tax Code, the Tax Rate Rollback Petition is to be submitted  “to the governing body on or before the 90th day after the date on which the governing body adopted the tax rate for the current year,” which was September 30th. 

“For the rollback, and any supplementation of the Petition (if petition is filed no later than 10 days before the deadline,) would need to be submitted to the governing body on or before December 29th, 2016,” said Saucedo.

Upset from the Maverick County concerned tax payers, the group that organized the petition, has not ceased. 

After receiving the documents they had requested, the group said they discovered that County Tax Assessor and Collector Isamary Villarreal had corrected the calculation of the rollback tax rate to include the $3 million previously committed. However during the September 28, 2016 meeting , the group says that instead of voting to adopt the new rate of $0.456839, Commissioners Court decided to not adopt any tax rate. 

According to the group, this was done deliberately to avoid adopting the $0.456839 adjusted rollback rate calculated by Villarreal, that would have resulted in the county losing about $3 million in tax revenue due to the 13 cent additional sales tax reduction required by law.

The group says the tax worksheet they have finally received is critical because it proves “once and for al that Commissioners Court knowingly failed to reduce the property tax rate by the 13 cents in additional sales tax; why the tax bills issued by the Tax Assessor Collector did not include the amount of property tax relief to taxpayers from the County’s use of the additional sales tax as required by Tax Code 31.01(i); why it was so important for the County to keep the worksheet from the public’s view to cover up what had been done; and how the County’s request to the Attorney General had all along been a stall tactic to facilitate the violations and cover up.“

A member of the group said that Ms. Villarreal’s open letter to the public on December 11, 2016 that her mistake had been fixed was false because fixing required adopting the $0.456839 adjusted rollback tax rate shown on the September 16, 2016 worksheet. 

 “She resorted to lying directly to the public to hide that she had been intimidated by Commissioners Court into letting them illegally adopt whatever rate they wanted and that she had been pressured by Commissioners Court into violating Local Government Code 140.010(h) by withholding the worksheets from the public since October 20, 2016 to cover up how the tax rate was calculated.” 

 The group says that actions by Commissioners Court on January 9, 2016 is just more evidence of the same behavior in noting that they have “no doubt that workers at the Elections Office were pressured by Commissioners Court into illegally removing signatures after seeing how they intimidated the Tax Assessor Collector into violating the law for them.  Commissioners Court passing a resolution reached through violations of the law to continue the County’s illegal tax collections is even less legitimate than the Court’s action on October 11, 2016 to adopt an illegal tax rate.”

Inconformes por petición

Staff reports

  El juez del condado de Maverick David Saucedo ha publicado una copia de la resolución con respecto a la petición de rollback presentada el 22 de diciembre, la cual declaró que la petición no era válida de acuerdo con la Sección 26.07 del código electoral de Texas debido a la escasez de firmas.

  Saucedo declaró que las firmas fueron determinadas inválidas por el administrador de la elección del condado, Roy Schmerber, quien encontró que había "individuos que no estaban registrados, firmas dobles, personas fallecidas y evidentes falsificaciones".

  "También hubo individuos que pidieron que se retiraran sus firmas, como se dijo durante los ciudadanos para ser escuchados segmento del Tribunal de Comisionados, pero esas firmas no fueron invalidadas", dijo Saucedo.

  Las firmas adicionales que fueron intentadas ser giradas en el día de la reunión también fueron invalidadas porque  dijeron que ya era tarde.

  El disgusto no se les ha terminado a un grupo de contribuyentes del condado de Maverick, el grupo que organizó la petición, .

  Después de recibir los documentos que habían solicitado, el grupo dijo que descubrieron que el Tasador de Impuestos del Condado y Colector a Isamary Villarreal habían corregido el cálculo de la tasa de impuestos de reversión para incluir los $ 3 millones previamente comprometidos. Sin embargo, durante la reunión del 28 de septiembre de 2016, el grupo dice que en vez de votar para adoptar la nueva tasa de $0.456839, la corte de Comisionados decidió no adoptar ninguna tasa de impuestos

Según el grupo, esto se hizo deliberadamente para evitar la adopción de la tasa de reversión ajustada de $ 0.456839 calculada por Villarreal, que habría resultado en el condado perdiendo unos $ 3 millones en ingresos tributarios debido a la reducción adicional de 13 centavos de impuestos requerida por la ley.

El grupo dice que la hoja de impuestos que finalmente recibieron es crítica porque demuestra "una vez y para siempre que la Corte de Comisionados no logró reducir la tasa del impuesto a la propiedad por los 13 centavos en el impuesto de ventas adicional; Por qué las facturas de impuestos emitidas por el Colector de Tasadores de Impuestos no incluyen la cantidad de exención de impuestos a los contribuyentes del uso del Condado del impuesto de ventas adicional como lo requiere el Código de Impuestos 31.01 (i); Por qué era tan importante para el Condado mantener la hoja de trabajo de la opinión del público para encubrir lo que se había hecho; Y cómo la petición del Condado al Fiscal General había sido una táctica de estancamiento para facilitar las violaciones y encubrir ".

Un miembro del grupo dijo que la carta abierta de la Sra. Villarreal al público el 11 de diciembre de 2016 que su error se había corregido era falsa porque la fijación requería la adopción de la tasa de impuestos ajustada de 0,456839 dólares que se muestra en la hoja de cálculo del 16 de septiembre de 2016.

 El grupo dice que las acciones del Tribunal de Comisionados el 9 de enero de 2016 son sólo más evidencia del mismo comportamiento al notar que "no hay duda de que los trabajadores de la Oficina de Elecciones fueron presionados por el Tribunal de Comisionados a retirar ilegalmente firmas después de ver cómo intimidaron al Impuesto Tasador Colector en la violación de la ley para ellos. Comisionados El Tribunal que aprueba una resolución alcanzada a través de violaciones de la ley para continuar las recaudaciones ilegales de impuestos del Condado es aún menos legítimo que la acción de la Corte el 11 de octubre de 2016 para adoptar una tasa impositiva ilegal ".

Jaclyn Guzmán

Staff Writer

  The county budget and tax rate for the 2016, 2017 fiscal year has officially been set.

At the most recent Maverick County Commissioner’s Court meeting, commissioners agreed on a budget of approximately $17 million, with a separate $3,195,178 for Road and Bridge.

No raises were given to county officials or employees except those who were making less than $8.50, as well as a 5 percent raise to employees of the auditor’s office. Longevity pay was also approved to be given to employees.

The new fiscal year will not mean new tax rates for citizens of Eagle Pass. 

At Tuesday evening’s meeting, city council proposed maintaining the same rate for the certified appraisal roles and certified roll back tax rates as 2015-2016: 0.546017. Public hearings on the issue will be held August 26 and September 6.