WHAT WILL NEW COUNTY JUDGE PETE SEPULVEDA DO ABOUT JPs MILLIONS $$$$ IN UNCOLLECTED FINES?

By Juan Montoya
In 2011, Cameron County Commissioners Court managed to balance its proposed $72.3 million budget without implementing employee pay cuts, furloughs or layoffs.

However, it had to increase property taxes by 2 cents per $100 valuation in order to raise an additional $1 million it added to the $866,000 raised by property taxpayers who paid early.
Then, in 2014, commissioners approved a penny and a half increase to add to the tax rate of about $0.38 per $100 of property.
The commissioners justified the increase when they passed a bond issue the year before that had to be paid for. They also altered the budget to allow for employee raises, a one-time stipend for employees and the authorization of numerous other positions.
“We already had to raise it by 0.8 of a penny because of the bond issue,” said then-County Judge Carlos Cascos, adding that the additional $0.007 rate increase came as the county worked with the budget, which now has authorized new positions in several departments.
But if the commissioners had asked County Auditor Martha Galarza just one floor above in the Dancy Building  where they meet to take a look at the uncollected fines levied by the county's 10 justice of the peace courts, they would have discovered that if there had been an energetic collection effort, they could have spared the taxpayers the extra burden.
An information request by El Rrun-Rrun indicates that in the last two years alone (2012 to 2015), the county's JPs have racked up a not-inconsiderable total of $12,337,360 in uncollected fines. (see graphic, click to enlarge)
When we asked some county administrators why this was, they said that when they inquired of the JPs, the judges pointed their finger at the constables. When they asked the constables, the constables pointed the finger at the JPS.
The courts are styled:
101 for JP Pct. 1 Benny Ochoa
201 for JP Pct. 2, Place 1 Linda Salazar
202 for JP Pct. 2, Place 2 Jonathan Gracia (who inherited the two-year total from Erin Garcia.)
203 for JP Pct. 2, Place 3 newly-elected Mary Esther Garcia
301 for JP Pct. 3, Place 1 Guadalupe "Lupe" Ayala
302 for JP Pct. 3, Place 2 David Garza
401 for JP Pct. 4 Juan Mendoza
501 for JP Pct. 5, Place 1 Sally Mendoza
502 for JP Pct. 5, Place 2 Eloy Cano
503 for JP Pct. 5, Place 3 Mike Trejo
*It is worth noting that in just the past two years, both Brownsville JP courts under Linda Salazar and Erin Garcia just about doubled the total amount of uncollected fines in their jurisdiction. In Salazar's case, she racked up $2,262,254 to bring the total amount of uncollected fines in her court to $5,313,064. In Garcia's case, her $2,639,409 in uncollected fines raised the total to $5,512,256.
But, going back to the tax raises, if the county JPs and constables had made an enforcement effort at collecting just a fraction of the $12 million racked up in the last two years, a tax increase would have been unnecessary last year.
For example, if they had collected just one-eighth of the fines generated in the last two years, it would have raised more than $1,5 million, decreasing the size of the tax raise or making it needless altogether.
That's just for the last two years.
Administrative services has information that shows that the total in uncollected fines on the JP courts is more than $34 million overall, or $34,767,302 to be exact. (see graphic, click to enlarge)
Even though the county has a contract with Linebarger, Goggan. Blair to collect delinquent fines, the collection effort amounts to form letters that defendants often throw away.
About the only time that the county get to collect on the JP fines is when the defendant wants to renew their auto registration for license plates or to conduct a transaction requiring them to do business the office of the tax assessor-collector. Cities also have such "scofflaw" contracts with that office that show when they they owe traffic or other fines. But that is a once-in-a-year occasion and not a concerted ongoing effort to collect the delinquent fines, sources say.
"If there was a real, meaningful effort to collect just one half of the fines and let people know that the county was serious about this, then people might come in and take care of their obligations," said a county administrator. "As it is, people don't think twice about throwing their letters of notice in the trash. We owe it to the county taxpayer to collect some of these and prevent their taxes from going up."
Now, with the county already looking forward to the 2015-2016 budget, it might to be as easy for new county judge Pete Sepulveda to pass a tax increase to make ends meet unless the administration shows taxpayers an aggressive effort to collect the delinquent fines