EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — El Paso County Commissioners Court kicked off its budget process at its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, Aug. 4 and heard two tax rate options.
The El Paso County Tax Assessor Collector’s Office presented the “No New Revenue” and “Voter Approval” property tax rates to Commissioners Court as required by state law.
The two tax rates presented are:
1. No-New-Revenue Rate: .409349
2. Voter-Approval Rate: .487797
As a matter of context, the County’s current rate is .426323.
At this time, the County is using the Voter Approval rate as a benchmark and planning tool.
The County can adopt a rate equal to or below the Voter Approval rate without triggering an election.
“This is the County’s policy and the approach that has been used in previous years and will give the County options on how to responsibly fund essential County services, and the majority of which are state-mandated responsibilities,” the County said in a news release.
El Paso County’s current and proposed tax rates remain among the lowest in the region, it said.
Of every dollar paid in local property taxes, only about 16 cents currently goes to the County, with the remainder going to other major regional taxing entities, the County said.
It is important to note that the County does not set property values. Those values are determined independently by the El Paso Central Appraisal District (CAD).
“The County’s responsibility is to adopt a tax rate that applies to those certified values to fund public services such as law enforcement, the courts, jails, elections, public health, infrastructure, roads, parks and more,” the County said.
The final tax rate is scheduled to be decided at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 18 during the regular meeting of the Commissioners Court. This meeting will include a public hearing on the tax rate.
Here are some key dates and topics in the County’s budget timeline:
Aug. 4 — Receive tax rates from tax assessor and proposed County tax rate from staff
Aug. 5 — UMC budget session
Aug. 11 — County budget hearing and proposed budget presentation
Aug. 18 — Emergency Services districts No. 1 and No. 2 budget and tax rate adoption
Aug. 18 — Public hearing and adoption of County tax rate
Aug. 25 — If needed: Backup tax rate adoption; UMC budget and tax rate adoption
Sept. 15 — Final public hearing and adoption of FY26 County budget
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