Starr County reports revenue shifts, year-to-date deficits and $3.4 million in remaining ARPA funds

County finance officers and elected officials reported November collections and year-to-date budget summaries at the Starr County Commissioners Court meeting on Dec. 9.

Tax Assessor Ms. Salinas told the court that Starr County entity current collections for November 2024 were $1,224,945.50, which was $674,938.70 less than November 2023. She said delinquent collections for November 2024 were $166,536.76, down $28,185.29 compared with the prior year. As of Nov. 30, her office had collected 8% of projected current collections and 13% of projected delinquent collections; she reported projected remaining current collections of $17,444,050.50 and projected delinquent collections remaining of $2,662,161.98. Motor vehicle-related collections for the month were $29,667.41.

The County Clerk reported records-management and archive revenues and said 1,516 marriage licenses were remitted to the state for November; the clerk noted a recent uptick in marriage-license requests (about 30 in the prior week and a half) and anticipated more activity in December.

A sheriff's office representative reported November revenues of $421,643 and provided inmate counts used in detention-revenue calculations (federal inmate average ~193; Hidalgo County inmates reported in the transcript as 22). The transcript records an edited total inmate count of 290 and states the office collected $38,431 more this month than last year.

A finance staff member presented reconciled cash and budget summaries: General Fund reconciled cash as of Nov. 30 was $1,689,773; Road & Bridge reconciled cash $362,150; General Fund year-to-date revenues collected $2,395,473 and year-to-date expenditures $4,605,451 with a deficit of $2,209,978. Road & Bridge year-to-date revenues were $712,997 versus expenditures of $1,631,729 (deficit ~ $918,000). The International Bridge enterprise fund showed YTD revenue $271,051 and expenditures $996,225 (a deficit), while the gas system and transfer station showed net surpluses for the period.

The speaker reported the county’s ARPA special revenue fund had a remaining balance of $3,425,040 and discussed the need to allocate POs by the approaching deadline; staff said some POs had not made the most recent batch and additional review time was needed. The presiding official and staff discussed a City of Roma outstanding balance reported at about $122,000 tied to an FY23 audit participation recalculation.

Officials noted the transfer-station vehicle purchase would be reimbursed by an external COG award; the transcript records that the COG has approved funding but the county must front the purchase and seek reimbursement. Several amounts and vendor/bank names in the audio transcription were garbled or unclear; this article reports only the figures and names explicitly stated and flags unclear items rather than inventing missing details.

Next steps: finance staff were directed to follow up on ARPA PO allocation timing, reconcile the City of Roma participation calculation and finalize reimbursement documentation for the transfer-station purchase.