El Paso County commissioners on Monday adopted a $2.1 billion budget for the county hospital district along with a lower property tax rate for fiscal year 2027 — but the average homeowner will still see their bill creep up by nearly $10 compared with last year. The new rate, 23.7 cents per $100 of property valuation, marks a roughly 2% reduction from the current 24-cent rate, yet rising home appraisals mean most property owners will still pay more out of pocket.
According to KVIA, the new rate reflects the state-mandated no-new-revenue calculation, which under Section 26.04 of the Texas Tax Code is designed to bring in about the same amount of money as the prior year from existing properties. As KFOX reports, the hospital district has proposed and adopted the no-new-revenue rate six times in the past seven years. Even so, an average home valued at $240,000 would carry a hospital district tax bill of about $568, an increase of roughly 81 cents per month, or almost $10 for the year, per the same report.
Why a Lower Rate Still Means a Higher Bill
The math comes down to appraisals. As the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts explains, the no-new-revenue rate adjusts downward when property valuations rise, but it only ensures the taxing unit collects the same total revenue from existing properties — not that any individual homeowner's bill stays flat. When a home's appraised value climbs faster than the rate falls, the bill still goes up.
The hospital district — which includes both University Medical Center of El Paso and El Paso Children's Hospital — has seen its revenues grow three times over since 2017, KFOX reports. Property taxes account for only about 8% of the hospital district's overall budget and roughly 11% of UMC's budget specifically, according to the same report, meaning the levy functions more as a lever for debt service and safety-net costs than as the engine of day-to-day hospital operations. El Paso Children's Hospital, notably, does not use tax revenue at all, per KFOX.
Debt From a $396.6 Million Bond Still Looms
Much of the district's current financial pressure traces back to November 2024, when El Paso County voters approved a $396.6 million bond package for hospital expansion. That package set aside $207.6 million for healthcare expansion, $134.5 million for main hospital upgrades, $24.5 million for critical care and burn units, and $30 million toward a joint cancer center with Texas Tech Health El Paso, according to El Paso Matters. UMC issued a first tranche of $275 million in bonds in mid-2025 to begin funding those projects, the outlet reported.
Jacob Cintron, president and CEO of the El Paso County Hospital District, said the district weighed taxpayer pressures when bringing forward this year's rate, per KFOX. Cintron oversees both UMC and El Paso Children's Hospital, while day-to-day hospital operations fall under CEO Maria Zampini, who was elevated to that role in an executive reorganization announced in April, as per Hoodline.
Uninsured Care Costs and Federal Funding Risks Ahead
UMC is bracing for financial strain on multiple fronts. The hospital expects to treat about 2% more patients next year and estimates the cost of caring for uninsured patients will reach approximately $277 million in the coming fiscal year, according to KFOX. UMC is also preparing for possible reductions in federal Medicaid funding, a concern Cintron voiced directly, saying hospitals are worried about potential impacts from changes affecting patient care. He added that the hospital district has not yet seen the impact of those potential changes, but said it will, per KFOX's reporting.
Those worries align with broader statewide warnings. The Texas Hospital Association has estimated that potential cuts to federal Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital payments could strip up to $778 million in combined state and federal funding for Texas safety-net hospitals in fiscal 2026 unless Congress delays them. Texas leads the nation in both the total number and percentage of uninsured residents, according to the association, a dynamic that leaves hospitals like UMC — home to the region's only certified Level I trauma center within a 270-mile radius — to absorb much of the uncompensated care themselves under federal law. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires Medicare-participating hospitals to screen and stabilize any patient who arrives at an emergency department regardless of citizenship or ability to pay, and KFOX notes that for-profit hospitals are also legally required to see patients who come into the emergency room.
Pay Raises for Lower-Wage Workers, Not Senior Leadership
On the spending side, El Paso County raised the minimum wage for county employees from $15.50 to $16 an hour and provided pay adjustments for employees in the district's first five pay grades, according to KFOX. The county did not, however, provide pay adjustments to employees in senior leadership positions this cycle, the outlet reported — a detail that lands amid ongoing scrutiny of executive compensation at the hospital district. Cintron's own base salary pushed past $1.1 million after a 99.95% performance evaluation for 2025, with total potential compensation nearing $1.5 million including bonuses, according to KTSM 9 News, which reported that hospital board members defended the pay as necessary to retain leadership at a major public health system.
El Paso homeowners already juggle combined property tax rates averaging 2.0% to 2.5% across five separate taxing jurisdictions — the city, the county, school districts, El Paso Community College and the hospital district — according to the El Paso Central Appraisal District. With Texas relying heavily on local property taxes in the absence of a state income tax, the hospital district's slice remains small in percentage terms but carries outsized weight in funding capital debt and the region's emergency safety net.
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