MARFA — The City Council adopted its fiscal year 2026-2027 budget Thursday night, September 24, after a hearing with no public comments. The council had already worked out line items on the budget in the previous weeks. The action was unanimously approved, but Mayor Manny Baeza was absent for that portion of the meeting.
The property tax rate was also adopted. The budget will raise less total property taxes by -$15,792 (-.8%). However, $18,987 in new revenue will be added with new property to the tax roll. The tax rate is .54180 per $100 valuation, a 2.6% decrease from last year. The 2025 average taxable value of a homestead was $211,439, and that value increased to $221,246, a 4.63% increase. The average taxes on a homestead will be $1,198, a 1.9% increase.
Council members approved financial reports, but Councilmember Raul Laura had questions about a consulting contract with former Councilmember Mark Morrison, who the mayor hired to work on projects he had spearheaded voluntarily while on council — namely water utilities to the new El Cosmico resort project. City staff said they would give council members Morrison’s contract and billing to date by email.
In other action, the council voted to renew an EMS interlocal agreement with Presidio County, but with the stipulation that the agreement go back to the county to approve language that changes the Marfa EMS service area. The council wants to change how far south EMS would drive to pick up transfer patients from Presidio EMS — from 34 miles on Highway 67 just north of Shafter to just 7 miles south on the highway to the intersection with Ranch Road 169, just south of the Border Patrol checkpoint.
The mayor and council members felt that Marfa is subsidizing the county’s EMS operations because, proportionally, it puts more money into the system than Presidio while also having the largest coverage area. Marfa uses about 38% of the county’s budget for funding EMS while covering about 66% of the areas served. “The funds and the coverage need to be balanced,” said Teresa Todd, legal advisor to the city.
Todd and Councilmember Travis Acreman had taken a deep dive into research of Marfa EMS expenditures, miles covered, cases responded to and other statistics and brought them to the County Commissioners Court to ask for more money this budget year. They did get more money, a bump from $65,000 to $100,000 annually, but Presidio EMS got a more substantial increase from $125,000 to $162,000.
County Commissioner Deirdre Hisler and County Attorney Blair Park both said Friday that the county has no authority to set EMS services areas, that those areas would need an agreement between Marfa EMS and Presidio EMS — something Todd also explained to council members at the meeting. Todd said in sending the interlocal back to the county with the change, she is uncertain what commissioners’ reaction will be. But she said, “It will start a conversation.”
Park said Friday that she’s resistant to including service areas in the agreement, because the county has no authority to set them and it could become entangled in legal issues if, for instance, one city’s EMS refused to respond to a call outside its service area, even if it was the only available unit.
Councilmember Katherine Kowal said at the meeting that Marfa taking a stand on service area changes may be what’s needed to get all the parties together to negotiate. Todd said she had already emailed the Presidio and Marfa mayors and EMS directors to begin discussing the issue.
While the interlocal is supposed to be approved by both entities with a new budget year on October 1, there are two other date-related impacts. The county intended to apply for the state’s Rural Ambulance Grant for a new ambulance for Marfa, and the grant application — which needs an approved interlocal — is due on October 31. Council members questioned the value of the grant, because even if Marfa is awarded a new ambulance, its EMS wouldn’t have anyone to staff it.
Another issue, according to Park, is that the county can’t make its payments to Marfa without an interlocal in place. “We’re aware of that,” Todd said. It’s uncertain what impact that will have on spurring negotiations between all the EMS parties.
