El Paso County

The county runs the jail, the courts, and the sheriff's department. Its budget book is public and readable. Its checkbook is not.

Data availability: partial

Publishes an OpenGov budget portal, monthly auditor reports, and meeting agendas. Publishes no vendor-level checkbook. Full scorecard.

Tax rate

$0.451133

Adopted county rate per $100 valuation, FY2026-27

County adopted rate. Combined with the city rate, in-city taxpayers face about $2.56 per $100. See city page for the stacked math.

The Sheriff's $5.9M overage

The biggest county money story of the year. The Sheriff's Office closed FY2026 (Oct 1, 2025 through Sep 30, 2026) about $5.9 million over its revised budget of roughly $142 million.

What drove it: jail-staffing overtime (the department says it needs about 100 more detention officers) plus rising inmate food costs.
Mid-year: the sheriff's budget had already been increased about $8M while other departments were told to cut.
How it was covered: contingency funds.
What changed: the FY2027 budget adds $15.4M to the Sheriff's Office, and commissioners must now pre-approve overtime for special operations.

Reported by County Budget Director Carmen Arrieta-Candelaria to Commissioners Court. Sources: El Paso Times, Aug 11, Sep 25, and Oct 2, 2026; KTSM.

Open questionsThe final audited deficit figure, and whether a formal budget amendment passed, are not yet confirmed. We will update this when the audit lands. Full deal card.

Voter-approved bonds

Bond elections reported to the Texas Comptroller under HB 103, served by our API from the public export.

Election date	Purpose	Authorized	Result
Nov 5, 2024	Public facilities	$26,700,000	Carried
Nov 5, 2024	Public facilities	Not reported	Defeated
Nov 5, 2024	Park / land	$95,615,000	Carried
Nov 5, 2024	Entertainment / sports facility	Not reported	Defeated
Nov 5, 2024	Public facilities	$32,710,000	Carried

Source: Texas Comptroller, Local Government Bond, Tax and Project Database (HB 103), data export pulled 2026-10-07. Amounts are voter-authorized, not amounts issued. Self-reported by the county.

Voters said no to the sports facility proposition.

Debt outstanding

$275.7M

Total bonded indebtedness, as of Oct 31, 2025

County Auditor Monthly Interim Financial Report, Statement of Bonded Indebtedness. Auditor publications. Newer reports are published on the auditor's site; this is the latest our automated pull could retrieve.

For the current figure, track the Bond Review Board directly: BRB debt search (its portal requires an interactive session we have not yet automated).

Budget documents

Interactive budget book (FY24 actuals, FY25 revised, FY26 adopted): OpenGov budget portal
Monthly interim financial reports: County Auditor publications
Commissioners Court agendas, including "audit and settle accounts" payment approvals: PrimeGov

Links verified Oct 7, 2026. The county's fiscal year runs Oct 1 through Sep 30. The Auditor's page references a check register, but we could not confirm a working URL for it. If you find it, tell us.

What you cannot see

The county publishes no vendor-level checkbook. The "audit and settle accounts" agenda items approve bills for payment, but they are PDFs attached to meeting agendas, not a searchable payment record. Why that matters.