PRESIDIO COUNTY — While the county is still pinching pennies, long overdue capital improvements — in other words, big-dollar equipment and infrastructure investments — may make their way back to the negotiating table. Instead of an automatic “no,” department heads are being asked this budget cycle to make a separate wish list for big ticket items, which the county may decide to finance in the coming years.
While the idea of taking on debt is political poison, county officials insist it’s a good thing — or at the very least, a normal thing. In late July, the county brought Maria Urbina of Hilltop Securities to give a presentation on the financial reality of using a chunk of local property taxes to make debt payments.
The state caps county tax rates at $0.8 percent, of which half can be used toward its interest and sinking fund — in other words, debt payments. This year’s proposed tax rate is around 48 cents per $100 of appraised value, with one cent going toward payments on a water development grant that includes a 30% loan.
That one cent represents a small shift in the county’s budget. Over the past few years, county officials have worked hard to clean up their financial act after a series of adverse, or failed, audits throughout the 2010s. Former County Auditor Patty Roach worked hard to play catch-up and preached a conservative approach during the budget process with a goal of shoring up a full year of operating costs in reserves. (Texas counties have both an internal and external auditor to make sure they’re crossing all t’s and dotting all i’s.)
As a result, the county hasn’t made a debt payment since 2020 — but they also haven’t made any major capital improvements, either. “They denied themselves a lot of the things that they needed,” said County Judge Joe Portillo of previous commissioners courts. “We haven’t taken out any long-term debt in a long time.”
Portillo pointed to a lot of “old, beat-up equipment” that the county relies upon, especially in the Road and Bridge Department. While new heavy machinery costs a pretty penny, trying to keep up with repairs on out-of-date equipment ends up costing more in the long run — and makes the department less efficient overall, he said.
In the past, the county has tried its best to rely on used and hand-me-down equipment, but that can have its downsides. One example: last year, the county was gifted a sorely-needed ambulance by Winkler County, which they then passed down to the City of Presidio. But the Winkler County ambulance has never turned its lights on, requiring repairs that neither the city nor county can afford.
During her presentation, Urbina explained that the county doesn’t need to go wild — but hypothetically, they could. If the county maxed out its tax rate, they could bear a debt capacity of $47.5 million.
Of course, nearly doubling the county’s tax rate would have devastating political consequences. If the county were to adopt the most conservative option — and add just one more cent per $100 to property owners’ bills — they could finance up to $3 million.
Precinct 4 Commissioner David Beebe said that he was “stressed out” by the budget process but that he’d long been interested in using a small portion of the county’s property tax for debt service. “A healthy city or county will take on debt,” he said, explaining that investing in capital improvements trickles down to “improving quality of life.”
Beebe agreed that the county’s Road and Bridge Department was in a particularly sorry state and hoped to see some of these potential funds go their way. In addition to cleaning up the county’s infrastructure, he wanted these improvements to have a long-term trickle down effect toward making people feel more empowered to do their jobs — rather than sitting out days or weeks for repairs or improvising with equipment ill-suited to the job. “It’s a pie-in-the-sky goal, but I want Presidio County to be one of the best places to work in Presidio County,” he said.
Current County Auditor Alicia Sanchez pointed out that these “quality of life” improvements wouldn’t benefit just county residents and staff but could boost the city’s economy in other ways — namely, through tourism dollars.
One particularly sore subject is the historic Marfa courthouse, which is overdue for expensive repairs to keep the structure comfortable, accessible and code-compliant. The county was recently turned down for funding through a Texas Historical Commission grant specifically geared toward such projects. But the iconic structure is a draw for many visitors, some of whom travel from all over the country to exchange their vows in the building’s quaint cupola. Getting stuck in the aging courthouse elevator — a real fear voiced by county officials multiple times over the past two years — isn’t a part of most couples’ visions for their wedding day.
Sanchez said that none of the pitches for these improvements were ego-driven and would have to go through an extensive vetting process. The reality is that the county does not make money and will likely never have the funds up-front for new motor graders, courthouse elevators, mold mitigation in Presidio’s county annex building — and a laundry list of dozens of other increasingly desperate needs. “Nobody’s using anything for their personal gain,” she said.
Trey Gerfers — program manager for the combination grant-loan that broke the county’s four-year no-debt-service streak — might be biased, but feels a small amount of debt isn’t a bad thing. “Our county doesn’t have any money, it’s no secret,” he said. “Counties can neglect these [projects] as Presidio County has, and they just get worse and more expensive.”
Gerfers secured $4.6 million from the Texas Water Development Board through its Economically Distressed Areas Program for water infrastructure improvements. $1.38 million of that funding is in the form of a loan, but the rest was a well-earned gift that will go to ensuring access to safe and reliable water in some of the county’s most underprivileged corners. “It’s the best the county’s ever going to get,” he said.
None of these decisions will be made until after the budget cycle. The earliest the county can go out for any kind of financing that might require voter approval is at the end of the year, with payouts to begin in 2025.
Judge Portillo hoped that voters would take the leap of faith but understood that the idea of debt would likely land the commissioners in hot water. “You can’t make it more palatable [to voters],” he said. “If you listen to any financial advisor, they’ll say you don’t want bills — pay everything off. But the reality is that all governments operate on debt.”