The Kleberg County Commissioner’s Court and the City of Kingsville Commission both met Monday to review proposed tax rates for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

The Commissioner’s Court approved a proposed tax rate of 76 cents per $100 in taxable value; last year’s tax rate was 67.5 cents per $100 in taxable value.

There was debate among the commissioners about the need to raise taxes rather than dip into the county’s financial reserves or lay off county employees.

County Judge Pete De La Garza said he was against any form of tax increase. The judge said he believed that any expenses could be covered with money from the county reserves.

“We just brought in $239,000 from Kleberg Bank,” he said, also noting that a back tax setttlement with

petroleum company is going to bring us another

430,000.

“That’s like raising the taxes without having to,” De La Garza said. “I think we have enough support in our reserves.”

Pct. 1 Commissioner David Rosse was against going into the reserves, and said he did not want the county

(See Taxes, Page 8A)

Taxes to go through again what happened in the 1980s when a rollback election had to be called.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to utilize the reserves; I would rather go up a little bit in taxes for a couple years then hold back now and have to hit everyone up hard all of a sudden like we did in the late 1980s,” Rosse said.

“If you remember, in 1989 the taxpayers had to have a rollback election and have struggled with this issue ever since.”

Rosse proposed the 76 cent tax rate and Pct. 2 Commissioner Norma Alvarez seconded the motion.

Alvarez suggested taking action on all three options to save money.

“I think we should do a little bit from all three, a tax increase, going into the reserves, and eliminating a few positions,” she said. “I’m going to vote for this today because it is a proposed increase and now we will have something to work with before it is final.”

Pct. 3 Commissioner Roy Cantu said he could not face the people at the south end of the county and tell them that he was going to raise their taxes again when many of their services have been cut the last few years.

“I am going to tell the people in my precinct that I worked hard to make the budget fit first,” Cantu said.

Pct. 4 Commissioner Romeo Lomas was against firing any employees and said he would rather go into the reserves then lose people.

Rosse gave some reasoning as to his motion.

“I hate to go up on taxes as much as the next person, but by proposing this tax rate, it gives us an opportunity to look at our budget and see where we need to be,” he said.

“We may not need to raise taxes but if we don’t give ourselves the option today then it will not be there as a backup,” he said.

De La Garza and Cantu voted no, Lomas, Alvarez, and Rosse voted yes and the motion carried.

Kleberg County Tax Assessor-Collector Melissa De La Garza explained that once the proposed tax increase was approved the commissioner’s court could not suggest going any higher in the future; therefore .76000 is the highest the rate could go.

“The next step is to publish notices of the proposed tax rate and between now and the next two hearings the rate will stay the same however at the very end the commissioners can lower the tax rate to anything lower then what was proposed today,” she said.

The county will hold two public hearings the first Monday, Aug. 23 and the second Tuesday, Sept. 7, both at 5:30 p.m. at the Kleberg County Courthouse Annex located at 1500 E. King St.

The final tax rate will be adopted on Sept. 20.

Kingsville City Commission unanimously proposed a tax rate of 84.2 cents per $100 in taxable value for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

Last year’s tax rate was .80187 or 80.1 cents per $100 in taxable value.

In regards to a proposed tax increase, Mayor Sam Fugate said, “there is not a county or city in this state that is not struggling right now and it’s really tough.”

The city will hold two public hearings the first Monday, Aug. 23, and the second Tuesday, Sept. 7, both at 6 p.m. at City Hall located at 200 E. Kleberg Ave. (Enter from Sixth Street).

The final tax rate will be adopted on Sept. 20.