Maverick County Commissioners Court held a meeting on Monday to discuss an agenda with over fifty items. CLICK HERE TO SEE the 7/11/22 AGENDA Item 20 brought up a heated discussion, watch it below:

MAVERICK COUNTY TOOK THE FIRST STEP IN THE PROCESS IN SEEKING A LOAN

The resolution was approved by a majority vote[1]. The next step is the publication of Notice of Intention to issue Certificates of Obligation[2] that needs to place in a regular circulating newspaper at least once for consecutive weeks (two weeks then a couple of more steps followed by the Maverick County Judge and Commissioners Court receiving $8 Million in funds. The Certificate of Obligation is basically a loan that cities, counties, school districts and other governmental agencies can use. It can be paid back with ad valorem taxes collected by the county. One example of valorem taxes collected by Maverick County is annual property taxes. The Notice of Intention To Issue Certificates of Obligations was rather vague and sparked a discussion before the county judge injected himself to make a clarification. Commissioner Ramos stressed her concerns about the loan and the uncertainty of where the funds will be used. Commissioner Ruiz seconded the concern adding that the county’s effort is a shotgun approach to the situation. Ruiz also made the suggestion to wait on the loan due to inflation.

THE NUMBERS

$8,000,000 – the amount Maverick County will be receiving in loan.
$15,768,575 – the estimated combined principal and interest
$34,469,000 – the aggregate principal amount outstanding of tax supported debt obligations to the county
5% – the interest rate
$42,042,996.50 – the amount maverick county tax payers will have to pay back for the $8M loan

WHAT COUNTY RESIDENTS CAN DO

According to local government code [3] the certificate of obligations can pass without a vote from the residents UNLESS – five (5%) percent of qualified voters in the county sign a petition forcing an election to decide the loan, if the county wanted to continue to pursue it.