EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — El Paso County commissioners voted Monday, Aug. 18 to raise the property tax rate, a move expected to cost the average homeowner about $137 more a year or $11.48 a month.
The new tax rate is $0.458889 per $100 of property value, up from last year’s $0.426323. Last time the County adopted this higher rate was two years ago.
The vote was 4–1, with Precinct 3 Commissioner Iliana Holguin the lone “no” vote.
“We know our residents are still struggling. I feel like raising taxes should be the absolute last resort,” Holguin said. “Sadly, I think we had other options that we could have taken today.”
Holguin argued the County could have tapped into reserves or cut non-mandated programs instead of raising rates.
But other commissioners said the hike was unavoidable, pointing to state-imposed obligations and rising costs.
“I don’t think that the residents of El Paso should have to, have their level of service, reduced, because the state is not funding us at the level that they need to be funding us,” Commissioner David Stout said. “In my opinion, a tax increase that is being forced by the state of Texas.”
Precinct 4 Commissioner Sergio Coronado also defended the increase, saying without it, the County’s reserves would have dropped to unsafe levels.
“If we went to the ‘no new revenue’ rate, we’d be below 4 percent. That’s not responsible,” Coronado said. “We need to bring our fund balance back up, and in order to do that, we have to increase the tax rate.”
County officials say the rate is expected to generate about $28 million, with most of it going toward rebuilding reserves. The change takes effect Oct. 1 and will show up on property tax bills this fall.
A final public hearing on the FY2026 budget will be held on Monday, Sept.15. On that same date, Commissioners Court will vote to formally adopt the FY2026 County budget.
Also Monday, County Commissioners Court adopted property tax rates for the Emergency Service Districts (ESDs) No. 1 and No. 2 for FY2026 as follows:
· ESD No. 1 – a tax rate of $0.100000 which is made up of an M&O of $0.060295 and an I&S of $0.039705 for a total budget of $23,636,432.74.
· ESD No. 2 – a tax rate of $0.087138 which is made up of an M&O of $0.057487 and an I&S of $0.029651 for a total budget of $24,902,708.
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