El Paso dealers, tax assessor press county for fixes after HB 718 shift creates title backlog

El Paso County dealers and the county tax assessor told the Commissioner's Court on Sept. 22 that a state law change — referenced in the meeting as House Bill 718 — has shifted responsibilities and produced a backlog of vehicle title and registration work that is delaying transactions, costing tax revenue and threatening some dealerships' lines of credit.

The dispute came to a head during the meeting's discussion of item 7a, an agenda entry described as "HB 718 and the county tax assessor's office," when dealers and the tax assessor presented conflicting descriptions of available capacity and possible short‑term fixes. "We are here because House Bill 7 18 has created a significant challenge, not only for dealers, but also for the county itself," said Eduardo Anaya, owner of Anaya Motors, during public comment.

Why it matters: dealerships rely on timely registration and plates to get vehicles to buyers and to protect dealer floor‑plan financing. County revenues — sales taxes and registration fees that flow through the tax assessor's office — depend on timely processing. County leaders said the backlog has resulted in lost tax collections and an urgent need for staffing or process fixes.

At the public podium, several dealers gave specific examples of disruption. Dealer representatives said 750 licensed dealers operate in El Paso County. A group of dealers provided internal tallies they said show months of uncollected taxes and delays: "In the last 2 months alone, 10 dealers who shared their data reported a combined $208,000 in uncollected tax revenue in the last month," Eduardo Anaya told the court. Luis Fierro and other dealers described individual accounts that they said had hundreds of thousands of dollars in delayed funds tied up in pending transactions.

Ruben Gonzales, the El Paso County tax assessor‑collector, told the court the office is processing transactions but is stretched. Gonzales said that after staffing a Saturday processing event his team completed about 1,700 transactions in one day and that "for that 1 day of collections, I collected $2,200,000 for those 1,700 transactions." He said the county now has more than 5,000 transactions in a queue requiring review.

Gonzales told the court the backlog is driven by a combination of the new state requirements, programming limits in the state system (which restrict how many rejection reasons the assessor's office can return per transaction), and the volume of both dealer and public walk‑in work that must still be processed manually. He said the state changed requirements to reduce fraud involving paper temporary tags and dealer tax forms — but that the county and dealers were not prepared for the scale of the change.

County staff and commissioners proposed a mix of short‑ and longer‑term remedies. County administration deputy Betsy Keller summarized recommendations under way: "We have recommended everything from changing his hours, doing shift work, to using temporary employees to help address the backlog," she said. Keller told the court the county can also approve overtime for assessor's office staff and had advised reclassifying several vacant positions to make them available for motor‑vehicle work. Gonzales said he had reclassified positions but still needs trained, dedicated staff.

Dealers reported informal peer support that has begun to reduce rejections. A dealer organizer described a dealer WhatsApp group of roughly 200 members that dealers use to share technical questions and avoid simple errors before submitting transactions. Gonzales and dealer representatives also discussed planned training sessions with the Texas DMV and county outreach for dealers on Oct. 10; dealers urged more real‑time feedback so applicants do not repeatedly resubmit transactions with additional errors.

The court took no new formal appropriation at the meeting but recessed to executive session and returned with several directions. Commissioners asked staff to prepare a public statement explaining the county's response and ordered continued cooperation between the tax assessor's office, county HR and dealer groups. Commissioners also asked HR to assist with hiring‑waiver submissions and to explore overtime and other short‑term staffing measures to reduce the backlog. Judge Ricardo Samaniego and commissioners said they would raise the issue with state and regional partners and with business groups to seek broader remedies.

Quotes from the meeting underline the urgency and the shared responsibility. "Without swift action, El Paso risks further revenue losses that could harm not only businesses, but also county programs and services that residents depend on every day," Eduardo Anaya said. Ruben Gonzales said the office had already shown it can clear transactions when it has staff: "That crew of mine, on that 1 day, they worked over 1,700 transactions," he said.

Next steps: the court directed county staff to draft a public release for distribution, continue working with the tax assessor to secure short‑term staffing and overtime, push the Texas DMV and state partners for technical and material support (including license plates), and asked HR to expedite requests for hiring waivers and to provide weekly status updates to the court.

The court did not adopt further binding actions at the meeting; commissioners said they would monitor implementation closely and could return the matter to the agenda if progress stalled.

Ending: Dealers and the assessor told commissioners they want two things: quicker, clearer feedback when a transaction is rejected, and prompt staffing/resources so pending transactions can be processed. The court directed staff to report progress to avoid further harm to dealers, county revenue and vehicle purchasers.