HARLINGEN — Speeding up wait times to pay taxes is something Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector Tony Yzaguirre Jr. is banking on.
On Thursday, Yzaguirre and county and Harlingen officials gathered to dedicate a new option downtown, where the former drive-in Capital One Bank location at 300 E. Van Buren St. is now open for business with six active lanes.
“There’s not going to be any indoor,” Yzaguirre said. “As we all know, drive-thrus are for quick service, and we’re going to be able collect property taxes at this location. We’re going to do renewals, motor vehicle license tag renewals and anything that has to do with quick service, paying your fees for a TABC license, businesses that have a liquor license. They can come by and pay their renewal license here.”
More complicated processes, like title transfers, will still have to be accomplished at the county assessor-collector’s Cameron County Harlingen Annex Tax Office on Wilson Road or any other site in the county which has inside access.
The old Capital One facility has been vacant for 12 to 15 years, and the county purchased it from developer Luis Villarreal since the property was part of his purchase of the post office building across the street.
Yzaguirre said the county paid about $200,000 for the bank building and its drive-thru lanes but had to put another $150,000 or so into it for new drive-thru transfer machines, a process he said was delayed for a year by supply chain issues.
“He’s a tough negotiator,” Villarreal said. “I started high, and he took me low. But I think it came out for the best, bringing life back to Harlingen. That’s what I’ve been all about.”
Yzaguirre and other officials who spoke Thursday morning stressed a major part of their thinking was reducing the taxpayer jam at the Wilson Road facility.
“The only problem is, it gets so congested,” Yzaguirre said. “I’ve seen it, and I’ve had complaints that there’s a long line and the line goes into the road, on Wilson Road. It becomes an issue at the end of the month where everybody decides to go at the same time.”
County Commissioner Gus Ruiz, who represents Precinct 4, said the schools in the area naturally are magnets for congestion at certain times of the day when they are in session.
“Sometimes it really does look like a Burger King or a Whataburger,” he said.
County Commissioner David Garza, who represents Precinct 3, said it not only will ease congestion at the annex on Wilson Road but serve as a draw to bring more people to downtown Harlingen.
“We did it in downtown San Benito, our downtowns are needing traffic, they’re needing to be rejuvenated,” Garza said, referring to the drive-thru tax office created in San Benito out of another abandoned Capital One site. “We have to give people another reason to come and this is a great place for us to create traffic for everyone up and down main street right here.”
“How many cars a day is to be seen,” he added. “But I guarantee you it’s going to bring in a lot of people. It’s going to relieve the congestion on Wilson Road for the folks that have to not only go by that office, but also drop off kids at Gutierrez and now IDEA back there.”
Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. said respect for the drive-thru concept accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic and has gained widespread approval among county officials.
“We realized that two and a half years ago when as we stated dealing with the global pandemic of COVID-19, with the uncertainty of dealing with the pandemic, we had to come up with different ways of how to conduct business and we realized that obviously online and drive-thru were going to be critical so that we would help stop the spread of the COVID,” Treviño said. “Going forward now we realized there’s an extreme benefit in that.”
Harlingen City Commissioner Michael Mezmar noted that not only will the new downtown drive-thru ease congestion on Wilson Road, but it will mean less drive time for Harlingen residents who don’t live on the west side of the city.
“Any time government, at any level, can make citizens’ lives easier and more convenient, I say hallelujah,” he said.
