School board mulls tax
collection contract with county

By STERRY BUTCHER

MARFA – Taxpayers in Marfa may get a single tax statement next October.

With the December 31 retirement of Veronica Campbell, a 25-year veteran of Marfa ISD, the district will be without a permanent tax collector-assessor. On Monday, school board trustees listened to a presentation by County Tax Assessor-Collector Norma Arroyo, who’s offered to take over those duties.

Her county office currently contracts to collect and assess taxes for the city of Presidio, Presidio ISD and the Big Bend Regional Hospital District. She forwarded a preliminary contract to the Marfa school board trustees for $25,000 per year for two years.

In comparison, Presidio ISD, which is significantly larger in population than Marfa ISD, pays Arroyo’s office about $29,800 a year for tax collection and assessment. The city of Presidio pays about $21,000 for the services.

Arroyo told trustees about her certification and she was confident that her office could handle the extra work. She noted that the taxpayer accounts are already in her database.

Without having to pay Campbell’s salary, postage, travel, paper expenses, and software updates, Marfa ISD Superintendent Teloa Swinnea thought the district could see “well over $100,000 in savings.”

With Arroyo at the school board meeting was Sergio Garcia, whose law firm works with Arroyo’s office to collect delinquent taxes. The firm sends letters and works out payment plans with delinquent tax payers, who pay a 15 percent fee to the law firm.

Former Presidio ISD superintendent Doug Karr now works with the delinquent tax firm.

“Norma is very user friendly and her reporting was on time,” he said. Working with Garcia, the tax collection rate during his time with Presidio ISD rose from about 70 percent to about 91 percent.

“And it continues to go up,” said Karr. “They’re a good tag team effort. Every dollar of tax collected returns $2.31 to this school in state aid,” he reminded trustees. “That’s how important the administration of tax collections is these days, especially in Presidio County.”

Sitting in the audience was Marfa Mayor Dan Dunlap, City Administrator Jim Mustard, and Councilmember Rudy Garcia. For the past several years, the city has paid the district to handle the city’s tax collection and assessment. This year’s contract is for $16,394. The district will continue tax collecting for the city through the contract’s expiration in April – business manager Vicky Sanchez is certified for the job – but what the city will do after that is up in the air.

“The city’s next step is to give our council a chance to ask questions and see if Norma Arroyo will make a proposal to them as well,” Dunlap said after the meeting.

No action was taken on the tax collection issue, though school board trustees could make a decision as soon as January. If both the district and the city were to sign a contract with the county, taxpayers in Marfa would receive a single tax bill.

“It shows how much is owed for each entity,” said Arroyo. “That’s more convenience for the taxpayer.”