Budget cuts force closure of Alamo tax office

ALAMO — Personnel cuts will force the Hidalgo County tax office to close a satellite station here that has experienced light demand.

The tax office needed to cut $118,000 from its budget to meet a countywide mandate, and it did so by eliminating three positions, said Armando Barrera Jr., Hidalgo County tax assessor-collector.

Those positions will be cut from the Alamo substation, 1429 S. Tower Road, which opened earlier this year.

Hidalgo County commissioners approved the fiscal year 2011 budget Tuesday —  after each department was asked to cut at least 8 percent in expenses. Barrera said he elected to eliminate the three positions after determining supplies, postage and other costs could not be adjusted.

“I’m cutting personnel and that means we’re cutting services,” Barrera said. “You can’t really maintain the same level of services when you cut personnel.”

The employees located at the Alamo substation will move to the main tax office in Edinburg. Applicants seeking three vacant positions will be hired temporarily until funding runs out on Jan. 1.

The county approved a $161.9 million budget that was complicated by declining property tax values and rising costs for some services. The county expects to collect roughly $6 million less in property taxes than it did two years ago, forcing county departments such as the tax office to slash operating expenses.

Barrera sent three of his employees from the main tax office to the Alamo substation when it opened earlier this year.

But the workload in Alamo has been low, with some days where not a single taxpayer arrived to pay vehicle registration fees or property taxes, Barrera said. And with the office actually requiring five people to operate in order to ensure the separation of duties required by the county auditor’s office, Barrera made a decision to close it at the beginning of next year.

Barrera’s staff has only increased slightly despite large growth in its workload. In 2000, its Department of Motor Vehicle handled 5,412 registrations per employee. By 2009, the number had swelled to 6,533 — more than 20 percent.

“I’ll be the first one to try to cut my budget. I’m all for being more efficient,” Barrera said. “But we can’t be expanding (locations) and cutting at the same time.”

___

Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.