Reprint from the Progress Times - December 21, 2007
©Progress Times 2007 - All Rights Reserved

Palmview gets county approval to create TIRZ

 

By Enrique Reynoso

In a regularly scheduled meeting the Hidalgo County Commissioners Court approved the creation of a tax increment reinvestment zone for the City of Palmview on Tuesday, December 18.  According to a letter submitted by Mayor Jorge Garcia, the purpose of the creation of the zone is to assist in developing infrastructure.  A consultant to the City of Palmview, Lance Elliot, made the presentation to the commissioners.

"Palmview would like to partner with Hidalgo County so that we can create this zone," Elliot said. 

County Judge J.D. Salinas asked Elliot if they had done an analysis on how the proposed zone would financially effect the city and the county.  According to Elliot, the estimate was that there would be $45 million of commercial development within the next 11 years.

"When the zone is created, no more than 10 percent of the value of the zone will be residential property," Elliot said.  "We’re proposing a $12 million value of the zone."

Elliot also added that with the creation of the zone, the city may expect some tax increase over the next 25 years.

"We estimate that there’ll be approximately five or six tax increases over the years," Elliot said.  "The current tax rate for the city is 0.3521, so we’re projecting a future increase to 0.5999616."

Up for approval for Precinct 3 was a consideration of $15,000 for JGF Enterprises to be used for road construction of Circle 6 N Road.  Also up for consideration was an authorization of $16,940.18 for paving improvements of Mile 8 1/2 North from Los Ebanos to Trosper Road for Javier Hinojosa Engineering.  Both measures were approved.

The next Hidalgo County Commissioners meeting is scheduled to be held on December 26 at 9:30 a.m.