Back in late 2022 I called my county commissioner’s office in Mission to address various budgetary concerns. After asking for the commissioner I was transferred to his chief of staff, a very courteous woman who listened to me and said she was taking notes. My concerns were as follows:
The final cost of the courthouse that is about $12 million and rising over budget. The annual rise of property taxes. The tax abatement (exemption) of several properties valued in the millions of dollars in HidalgoCounty, like sports complexes, arenas and businesses. The abatements are used to attract these venues and businesses in hopes that they will employ locals.
The bloated budget of HidalgoCounty that pays fat salaries and benefits to county employees that are equal to salaries paid in Houston or San Antonio.
I also proposed that the county commissioner do some out-of-the-box thinking to relieve sky-high property taxes. For example, instead of raising property taxes they place a moratorium on these taxes and shift some of these taxes to automobile registrations and renewals by increasing the cost for your license plates at the county level. Also, to help offset the county courthouse overruns we charge a 1% fee to attorneys and 1% to plaintiffs on any personal injury cases that are settled in excess of $500, 000. For example, a case settled for $2 million would net the county $20,000 toward the courthouse cost.
I figure that if you use the courthouse to make your money, you should pay for using the building paid for by the homeowners of HidalgoCounty. After watching television commercials of some of our local attorneys who use the courthouse to settle hundreds of millions of dollars in judgments for clients the courthouse deficit could be wiped out in a few short years, saving and reducing property tax costs to homeowners. Homeownership should be sacred, and the burden of excessive property taxes by utilizing other revenue streams such as those I mentioned would help homeowners from the overburden of property taxes.
To date I have never heard from my county commissioner after giving my name and phone number to discuss these new revenue ideas, but she did offer her solution, and that was to bring these ideas to the Hidalgo County commissioners’ meeting by requesting speaking time at a future meeting.
I told her then: Of what use is my commissioner? He is my representative, my voice to the Commissioners Court; in other words, the person elected to represent me doesn’t, and that’s the way it is, folks. I urge the readership to call their county commissioner and see if you get the dust-off like I did.
It helps with your decision the next time they are up for election and begs the question: Whose interest do they represent?
Jake Longoria
Mission
Column
praised
Kudos to Louise Butler on her op-ed to the paper (Jan. 31). She has expressed the real feelings most of us harbor about school-age children.
Why are the interests of most students always sacrificed for a relatively few who continually disrupt society? Well said, Ms. Butler.
Richard Sanders
Harlingen
