“There is a big concern in Uvalde County of ever-increasing property taxes,” Olvedo Karau said.
by Michael Robinson | Uvalde Hesperian
Tuesday, August 12th, 2024
Uvalde County Commissioners voted to move forward approving a petition to create a County Emergency Services District (ESD) and to place the item on the November 5th, 2024 General Election ballot. If the voters approve of the measure, a new property tax will be established to fund the entity.
The President of the Uvalde Volunteer Fire Department Heath Sutherland along with members of the Uvalde Fire Department were on hand for the meeting showing their support for the measure,
“The Uvalde Volunteer Fire Department, Reagan Wells Volunteer Fire Department, Knippa Volunteer Fire Department and Sabinal Volunteer Fire Department all have gone in together and we put in a petition to create an Emergency Services District. The Tax would be a maximum of ten cents per $100 valuation on property taxes. This will all be governed by 5 ESD Commissioners that would be appointed by the Commissioners Court. That’s how the structure works. The money would go there and every department would have its budget and go to the board present to them and be funded based on that.
We have seen a lot of increases in prices and stuff like that for apparatus and we’ve tried grants and we’ve tried fundraising. We have a ton of support for the community, we really appreciate it, but sometimes it’s not enough especially with the way things have been going up,”Sutherland said.
According to Simon Van Dyk who has been engaged with the Uvalde Volunteer Fire Department responded to the question of what the starting tax rate will be.
According to Van Dyk, an ESD board comprised of appointed board members would set the tax rate each year.
Van Dyk continued in answering questions from Commissioner John Yeackle where he stated, the money would go towards response times, equipment, personnel and training.
Diana Olvedo-Karau spoke against the measure stating the County could choose to increase its funding of the Volunteer Fire Departments.
“There is a big concern in Uvalde County of ever increasing property taxes,” Olvedo Karau said.
She also said that while increasing the tax on the value of a residence equating to an additional $150 per year may not be an issue for those doing well, there are citizens just trying to put food on the table and afford basic necessities.
Olvedo-Karau went on to say the County could just increase the amount it allocates to the respective volunteer fire departments, She went on to say that there are items in the proposed County budget where monies could be reallocated to fund the volunteer fire departments within the County.
