(C) El Paso Matters.org This story was originally published by El Paso Matters.org and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . El Paso public safety pay raises drive projected city, county budgets [1] ['Elida S. Perez', 'More Elida S. Perez', 'El Paso Matters', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width'] Date: 2024-06-30 The city and county governments are gearing up to set their budgets for the next fiscal year in the coming weeks, both of which will likely be largely impacted by public safety contracts requiring pay raises and other benefits to first responders. El Paso County Commissioners this month received updates on the financial challenges the county faces, including having to pay millions more in law enforcement compensation under previously approved contracts while losing millions in federal revenue for use of county detention facilities. Although the El Paso City Council receives budget updates throughout the year, official budget work sessions will begin in the coming weeks. The city also faces budget increases largely driven by police and fire collective bargaining agreements and operations and maintenance costs for new facilities. The budget process begins with the interim city manager and county administrator presenting preliminary budget proposals to the City Council and County Commissioners Court, respectively, before each government body finalizes what services and projects to fund for the community. Each will also factor in property valuations to determine the tax rate required to fund their budgets. Property values have spiked over the last four years as the El Paso Central Appraisal District has conducted mass appraisals. While certified valuations are expected to be released in July, preliminary numbers show a 16% increase in overall property values and a 12% increase in residential properties. “This is a year where, even though the tax rates may come down, the (property tax) collections will probably increase as a consequence of the higher valuations,” said Tom Fullerton, a professor of finance and economics at the University of Texas at El Paso. “The city and county will declare victory, but a large percentage of homeowners and business owners are likely to see an increase this year.” El Paso County faces financial hurdles County commissioners oversee the operation of the Sheriff’s Office and jails, tax assessor, coroner and wastewater and stormwater infrastructure for unincorporated areas. The county’s general fund budget also pays for programs mandated, but not funded by the state, including jailing state prisoners, public defender salaries and election costs. County officials estimate at least half of the general fund budget pays for the state mandates. An El Paso County Sheriff’s deputy sets off to patrol the Montana Vista area of El Paso County on Feb. 16. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters) Among projected budget increases for the county are $5 million in contractual agreements for sheriff’s deputies and constable pay raises, a $1.3 million service fee increase for Central Appraisal District services, and a yet-to-be determined amount in overtime pay increases for detention officers. “I think the Commissioners Court has had policies and practices that have helped us to be very fiscally responsible,” El Paso County Chief Administrator Betsy Keller told El Paso Matters. “So, I do think we will be able to weather this shift that we’re going through right now where we’re seeing a decline in revenue and some increases in expenses.” Keller said the increase in pay for law enforcement is a good investment for the county. “We all get nervous when there’s anything where we see or feel like there’s an uptick in crime, or we’re hearing about more crime so we also think that that’s a really wise investment to keep our well trained law enforcement employees on the job,” she said. The county is anticipating a projected $11 million loss in jail revenue. Keller said that largely stems from Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, which has resulted in the arrests of hundreds of migrants that were held in the county jail on charges such as rioting and smuggling. The state doesn’t reimburse counties for jailing state prisoners, though Keller said the county is looking for ways to seek state funds to cover the costs. “Those individuals ended up in the jail – I think right now, today, we have about 350 people in there that are in there on smuggling charges, and then we had about another 51 that were in there on rioting – so that’s over 400 people, and that’s 400 beds that we did not have to give to the federal government,” Keller said. The El Paso County Detention Facility, 601 E. Overland Ave. Downtown (Cindy Ramirez / El Paso Matters) She said the impact is two-fold: One is that the county loses revenue from the federal government that it would typically collect to house federal inmates in county jails. Second, the county now has to pay medical expenses for the inmates to comply with jail standards. “It’s really shifted a loss of revenue and some increased expenses because they’re now state responsibility,” she said, adding the federal government pays the county $101 per day for holding federal inmates along with their medical expenses. Keller said the county is also looking to find grants and other funding options to ease some of the financial challenges. Commissioners Court last year adopted a general fund budget of about $476.5 million and adopted the voter approval tax rate, the highest rate that could be adopted without going to the voters. The county’s total budget was $602 million. The budget included a controversial 16% pay raise for commissioners and the county judge, as well as a 4.75% raise for other county elected officials. The county, in previous years, had largely kept its tax rate flat, or lowered it, although increased home valuations still translated to increased county tax bills for property owners. Keller said she does not anticipate the Commissioners Court will have to adopt the voter approval rate for the next fiscal year. The county is expected to adopt its budget in September ahead of the next fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. The lake at El Paso County’s Ascarate Park in the Lower Valley (Cindy Ramirez / El Paso Matters) The budget cycle also comes as the Commissioners Court is planning to put a bond issue of up to $350 million on the November ballot for capital improvements ranging from improving water, stormwater and wastewater systems to upgrading Ascarate Park and modernizing the County Coliseum. The court has not officially voted to put the bond on the ballot or decided which projects the bond would fund. Commissioners must also decide whether to tack on a $99 million bond request from the University of Texas at El Paso to upgrade Sun Bowl Stadium, though a majority of commissioners have dismissed the idea or expressed hesitancy of including the stadium on a bond proposal. The county has identified $1 billion in infrastructure needs, though it can only borrow $500 million over the next five years without impacting its bond rating. City must fund police, fire pay raises The city, whose fiscal year runs Sept. 1 to Aug. 31, will begin budget work sessions July 8. The budget funds services such as streets and public transportation, police and fire services, parks and libraries, among others. El Paso Matters asked to interview interim City Manager Cary Westin or Chief Financial Officer Robert Cortinas for this story, but city spokesperson Laura Cruz-Acosta in an email said that “staff are respectfully declining to speak on the budget at this time as it would be inappropriate to comment before the Council has had an opportunity to review and discuss the budget.” The main entrance to El Paso City Hall, 300 N. Campbell in Downtown (Cindy Ramirez / El Paso Matters) City Rep. Josh Acevedo, who will go through his first city budget since taking office in January, said he was briefed on the preliminary budget this week. “From just this meeting alone (which) is very preliminary, I think I want to see how we can increase sales tax revenue,” Acevedo said. “Right now it’s pretty stagnant – I feel that there’s more economic development opportunities that we could bring and stuff to increase that.” The city’s five-year financial forecast released in March shows the city’s sales tax revenue was generally higher than projected the last few years. But 2024 shows minimal growth in the category. Acevedo said he also wants to find a way to increase funding for street repairs. The city allocates about $7 million annually for residential street resurfacing and $3 million annually for street repairs, according to city documents. Acevedo said that the fund needs to have about $40 million to meet the needs. “It’s such a large contrast between what’s needed and what we can actually put in the budget right now and how can we have that conversation to get a better place,” he said. The city’s public safety budget, which makes up for more than half of the budget, has been on the rise since 2015, increasing by nearly 51%, city documents show. The next fiscal year requires an increase to police and fire pay of about $16 million and about $1 million in operations and maintenance of public safety bond projects. The El Paso Police Department Northeast Regional Command on Dyer Street. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters) “Obviously there are some obligations that create pressures on the budget,” city Rep. Chris Canales said. “The largest of that is contractually obligated pay increases for police and fire, for our uniform employees, and also the continued minimum wage increases that we’ve committed to for the City’s non uniform employees.” The budget will also have to factor in $1 an hour pay increases for non-uniformed employees, with 50 cents September and 50 cents in March to bring the city’s minimum wage to $14.11, documents show. While the dollar amounts were not included in the financial forecast, the city anticipates increased operating costs for new bond projects, including the penguin exhibit at the El Paso Zoo that opened in December, and La Nube children’s museum and the Mexican American Cultural Center that are set to open this summer. The council last year adopted a general fund budget – the operating fund for basic services paid for primarily through property and sales taxes – of $573.3 million for the current fiscal year. To fund it, the city adopted the “no-new-revenue” rate, or the rate needed to collect the same amount of property tax revenue on the same properties from the year before. The all funds budget, which includes the general fund and other revenue sources and expenditures, was set at $1.3 billion which was $147 million more than the prior year. The El Paso city government routinely adopted tax rates above the “no-new-revenue” rate until last year. But city leaders have misleadingly claimed to be holding the line on taxes because rates were the same as the previous years, allowing the city to take in millions of additional dollars in property taxes as valuations rose. Aside from cost of living increases, voters must approve any pay raises for the mayor and eight city representatives. Dates to Remember El Paso County budget schedule: July 29: Proposed budget presented Aug. 13, 14: Budget hearings Sept. 16: Budget adoption City of El Paso budget schedule: [END] --- [1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2024/06/30/el-paso-county-commissioners-city-council-budget-property-taxes/ Published and (C) by El Paso Matters.org Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/elpasomatters/