Harlingen passes $67.2 million budget; new street crew to boost paving

HARLINGEN — City Hall’s payroll is growing by about $1 million, opening up 21 jobs while manning a 10-member street crew aiming to double paving under a new $67.2 million general fund budget coming with a $33 million cash stockpile.

On Thursday, City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez described it as a balanced budget.

Amid some residents’ opposition, commissioners set the city’s property tax rate at about 52 cents per $100 valuation, down from the current 54 cents, based on a state mandate capping new revenue at 3.5%.

As part of the budget, Gonzalez said he pulled $3.5 million from the city’s cash reserves to cover one-time equipment purchases.

“Have we done our due diligence in reducing our expenses, at making sure we’ve covered everything possible?” Commissioner Frank Morales, who cast the lone dissenting vote against passing the budget, asked officials during a meeting Wednesday.

Through three workshops, officials cut “much larger” department funding requests, Robert Rodriguez, the city’s finance director, said.

Under the budget, commissioners are tacking about $1 million to the city’s payroll to fund 21 new positions, including a 10-member street crew expected to boost paving from about 4 miles to about 8 miles a year.

The street crew, including a superintendent and a manager, will help officials cut out contractors from paving jobs, Rodriguez said.

“Being able to fund this crew is actually going to save us money in the long run because of all the in-house work that we’re going to do,” Mayor Norma Sepulveda said.

On the payroll, commissioners are also adding four parks jobs, two openings in the building inspections department, two sanitation workers, a tennis center clerk and a cyber-security officer.

Harlingen City Hall is seen in this undated photo. (File Photo)

The budget also includes $2.28 million in one-time heavy equipment purchases, much of which is aimed at stocking up the street crew with a street paver and two rollers along with two dump trucks, a backhoe and other equipment.

Meanwhile, commissioners set aside $2.1 million to cover police and fire department salaries stemming from collective bargaining agreements.

“I know there’s been a lot of talk that it’s a $2.5 million difference from the last year,” Sepulveda said, referring to the budget.

During the meeting’s public comment period, some residents opposed commissioners passing the new tax rate of 52 cents per $100 valuation, based on the so-called voter-approved tax rate.

With Morales casting the lone dissenting vote, commissioners chose the voter-approved rate over the so-called no-new-revenue tax rate, calculated at 49 cents per $100 valuation.

Under the voter-approved rate, the city will generate an additional $1.45 million, calculations show.

During discussion, Commissioner Daniel Lopez called the city’s tax rate one of Cameron County’s lowest.

This year, the Cameron County Appraisal District boosted the city’s appraised property values to $5.2 billion, up from about $4.6 billion last year.

“The Cameron County Appraisal District — Cameron CAD — raises our taxes too frequently,” Commissioner Michael Mezmar said.

Based in part on spiking reappraisals, the new tax rate’s projected to generate a total of $27.5 million in revenue.

Harlingen City Hall is seen in this file photo. A group of residents is being charged with planning propositions for the city’s next election set for November 2024. (Valley Morning Star file photo)

“The evaluations did go up pretty heavy this year,” Kareem Abdullah, the city’s deputy finance director, told commissioners. “We’ve had a huge increase in our property values in this area in the last three of four years.”

Despite commissioners cutting the tax rate, the city’s taking in more revenue.

That means more taxes, residents opposing the new tax rate said.

“I’m a taxpayer here, too, and I pay additional tax,” Sepulveda said. “Do I want to pay additional tax? No. But we have to fund the police. No one wants to de-fund the police or fire (department).”

About 65% of the budget’s total revenue is projected to cover $41.6 million worth of personnel expenditures, with the police department taking up $16.7 million while the fire department’s taking $11.4 million.

Amid some opposition, Sepulveda stood behind the budget.

“I’ve got to make sure that the employees that work for the city are paid a living wage, and we are striving to do that,” she said. “They need healthcare insurance. That was a 5% increase. We need to provide excellent service to the community. We need to do better in terms of parks, and that’s why we’re funding more positions. We need to do better with streets. That’s why we have that crew.”

To help fuel the budget, Gonzalez is projecting sales tax revenue to jump to $26.1 million from $24.3 million this year.

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