BROWNSVILLE — Cameron County commissioners spent a good portion of yesterday morning discussing how to balance the budget for the 2016-2017 fiscal year and still manage to increase employee salaries.
Part of the solution is raising the county tax rate, which currently sits at 0.399291 per $100 valuation.
Xavier Villarreal, deputy county administrator, previously has suggested the county adopt a 0.409291 tax rate — a penny increase.
But other options exist, too. The effective tax rate option is 0.396517, a slight increase over last year’s rate, and the rollback tax rate, 0.429290.
Precinct 3 Commissioner David A. Garza supported an increase to pay for the tax indebtedness the county has incurred, but only the minimum required.
“That is the maximum I will support an increase in taxes. If you can do some innovative work and find some monies that can make the budget work, fine by me. But I will not support an increase of a penny just to have extra money,” Garza said.
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