Texas Border Business
By Roberto Hugo Gonzalez
During the commissioner’s meeting on Monday, June 27, 2022, McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos proposed tax relief for McAllen residents. This morning, he told Texas Border Business the city has worked under a tight budget and is being frugal with spending, but the city has done well. “A couple of weeks ago, we gave our employees a bit of assistance.” He said, “I have directed our city manager to look into the possibility of a little tax relief.  I am hoping and think we may be able to do it.”
Mayor Villalobos mentioned that the meeting had a lot of essential items for discussion, among them, this one item was the most important.
He added that city management, employees, and commissioners had worked diligently during times of inflation and other issues. “Our task is to ensure taxpayers’ money is managed properly.”Â
The mechanism to come out with a tax relief consists of the same. “Tight management continues to ensure that my proposed tax relief is acceptable for our 2023 budget.” He continued, “That means every department is fully staffed, but not overstaffed.”
From the beginning of his tenure as mayor, Villalobos has shown that he is a conservative and fiscally responsible. “That is why we have to look at every aspect of our budget, and even if it’s a small tax cut, that would mean at least a little bit of relief for our residents.”
Villalobos believes that management can make it work. “I think the rest of the commission will support it.”
As he explained, he is not in favor of raising taxes to create relief. “People know I have fought tax hikes, and I will continue to do so.”
He emphasized that the tax relief he is recommending is a small one. “It cannot be a big tax relief because we have to consider the size of our municipality and the services provided need to continue to be excellent and efficient as always.”
“We have the best police department, the best fire department, the best streets, water, and sewer systems. We have the best of everything. And to keep the same level of services, of course, we must keep up with a certain amount of revenue stream coming in.”
He noted that appraisals keep going up, and people will generally be paying a little bit of an increase everywhere. “If we can reduce it a little bit and do our part, it will benefit the community.”
Villalobos pointed out that city management and commission will start working on the 2023 budget in a few weeks. “We will get all the numbers from the appraisal district, expenses, and estimated revenues. Then we can figure out what we can do, but I strongly believe that we will have the commission’s support, and with management’s hard work, we will be able to do it.”
According to Mayor Villalobos, what prompted the idea of the tax relief is the overall inflation causing so much pain to McAllen’s residents. “We, as a city, have done well. We should extend the benefit to our residents.”
“It’s almost impossible to lower rates generally, but now and then if we can, we should. I think we can,” Mayor Villalobos finalized.
