Commissioners approve FY17 budget; finalize controversial pay raises
El Paso County Commissioners voted Monday to approve the county’s roughly $347 million budget for the 2017 fiscal year.
The budget for the general fund – $284 million – increased by nearly $21 million, a 7.98 percent increase, according to the county.
Nearly $35.2 million was allocated to “special revenue,” a little more than $4 million was allocated to capital projects, nearly $20.6 million was allocated for debt service, and nearly $3.4 million was allocated to enterprise funds.
The tax rate approved by commissioners is $0.456126 per $100 of taxable property. Commissioners “adopted a tax rate below the effective tax rate, which equates to $2 million in taxes not passed on to county property owners,” according to the county.
Among the additions to the FY17 budget are $250,000 for a mental health gap analysis and $320,000 for a community ID program. The county also wants to use Hotel Occupancy Taxes to “complete a Historic District survey and invest in the preservation of historical assets.”
It also plans to set up a new county economic development department. Funding for the salaries of a department director and two additional staff is included in addition to $500,000 toward future developments.
The vote to approve the budget also finalizes their own controversial pay raises. This is the final step in the budget process, after the tax rate was finalized two weeks ago and kept unchanged from Fiscal Year 2016.
With the budget, the salaries of commissioners will be going up 42 percent to about $89,000 a year. The county judge will now make more than $100,000 a year, about a 17 percent increase. Commissioners voted to approve their own raises in August.
According to county leaders, due to state law, this is the is the only way the court could approve a pay increase. This is different from the City of El Paso, where voters approve pay increases.
Commissioners had hired a consulting firm to come up with the raise amounts. They have previously said they wanted to increase the competitiveness of wages in comparison with other cities in texas.
