Hidalgo County has more needs than it does money.
County Judge Richard F. Cortez was blunt Monday when describing the hurdles officials will face when beginning budget workshops for the 2021-222 fiscal year, a process the commissioners court will launch Tuesday afternoon.
County commissioners will meet with department heads and begin discussions on how the county will allocate funding throughout the area.
“The greatest challenge is that we have more needs than money,” Cortez said Monday. “We’re the seventh largest county in Texas with a growing population. We just created a new district court, and we just created the county court at law to keep up with all the judicial responsibilities that we have.”
Cortez said that there are many needs that will need to be addressed, including more positions for the district clerk, more jail beds for the county jail, and more auditors just to name a few.
“We need more of everything,” Cortez said. “It’s difficult to keep up with and prioritize all the needs of the county, but we have to do it. To me, it’s balance (between) the needs of the county with the money that’s available.”
COVID-19 threw a wrench into budgeting plans last year, and it will continue to be a priority as the county continues to plan for the delta variant of the virus.
“COVID was an interruption — an interruption in everything,” Cortez said. “It was an expense to us because we had to do a lot of enhancements in and around county facilities. Thank God the federal government sent us money to do that, but it took away time from me, from my staff, from other staffs to deal with COVID. This time last year — July — it was pretty much every day. It was COVID, COVID, COVID.”
Cortez said the pandemic caused delays in many county projects, including construction of the new county courthouse.
“It did affect it,” Cortez said. “Again, even though construction continued, it was less people on site; less people wanting to do inspections because of COVID. It’s certainly going to delay it somewhat. How much? We don’t know yet.”
The county judge said public health will continue to be a priority for the county, and noted its participation in Operation Lone Star, which is currently offering free medical, dental, and ophthalmological services to the community through the end of the week at PSJA Early College High School, located 805 at W. Ridge Road.
The county judge is especially concerned about undocumented individuals who may be afraid to seek medical help because of their immigration status, an issue that has grown as more people test positive for the aggressive delta variant.
“We have a high percentage of people without medical insurance. We have a high number of people that are here unauthorized, and they’re afraid to go out and seek medical attention for fear of being caught, if you will, being here,” Cortez said. “So some of them stay sick. Now that the schools are open, some of their children are in our schools. It’s a huge challenge, and the people don’t understand how huge of a challenge it is. I think that based on the performance of our health department this past year, I think we did a pretty good job.”
Cortez said he intends to enter the budget workshops with an open mind and take each need into consideration.
In addition, the county judge hopes to “reconcile any differences” that may be expressed while officials from the commission and departments discuss needs.
“At the end of the day, it’s not going to change the amount of money that we have. All that’s going to change is how we’re going to spend it — which to me, I’ve said that when I’ve been on campaign trails,” Cortez said. “I’ve said, ‘The most important task that an elected official has every year is how are we going to use your money?’ That to me is the most important task that we have.
“We’ll start those debates tomorrow.”
