Hidalgo pay & tax increase justified?

dimetime · #1 09-12-2008, 09:13 AM

The commissioners of Hidalgo County have recommended that there be a tax increase of 4.17% on properties on a tax roll. Due to the lesser value on these properities the state the average residence in Hidaglo County will only pay around thirteen dollars per year more than least years rate of tax. This is in assumption that the average homestead value is around eighty thousand dollars.
Statistics according to the Texas A&M Estate Center the family of a median income of McAllen area has gone down in 2002 by around thirty thousand and in 2007 by just over twenty five thousand.
The ratio of affordability of homes that qualify for loans is less than 1.0% and this includes first time buyers. The percentage of home which are worth more than one hundred and twenty thousand in McAllen is on the rise at a steady pace. Though at the very same time in Hidalgo County Commissioners have been asking to raise the pays of employees of the county as well as for themselves by 5%. In comparasions with other counties, some show to be higher and some are lower.
The concern is when elected officals call for an increase in tax rates a decrease due to lower end owners of homes have been devalued. By comparing counties by the rates of pay can be quite deceptive. Comparisons should be made by level of responsibility of one office to another, merits and efficiency. There is a downward trend of the citizens incomes as well as home values in Hidalgo County. As for now no one can say when this trend will make a turn around.
Many believe that while so many families are struggling so much that the increase of taxes as well as an increase in pay to goverment employees is completely unjustified.

carol b · #2 09-13-2008, 12:25 PM

Seems funny to me. In our state there are counties that have
cute jobs and knocked others from full time to part time. They
know that this is the only way to keep their budgets in line.

The future is bleak and the are planning ahead. This state
needs to follow that example. All for one and one for all.