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Tax office defends temporary-staff pipeline, reports record auto and property revenue
Summary
Tax office leaders told commissioners the department depends on 100–150 temporary workers seasonally—about 55% focused on auto services—and reported FY24 revenues of $60,000,000 in state auto-service fees, $8.6 billion in property taxes collected and $1.5 billion in automobile fees.
Etoro Apotheon, associate budget director for the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector's Office, presented the office's FY24 results and FY25 enhancement requests at Commissioners Court.
Apotheon said the office saw record fee revenue in FY24 including $60,000,000 from the state for auto services, $8,600,000,000 in property-tax collections for county and other jurisdictions, and about $1,500,000,000 in automobile fees. He also noted an 80% increase in volunteer deputy voter registrars (VDVRs) after voter registration returned to the tax office.
The presentation and follow-up Q&A focused heavily on the office's reliance on temporary employees. The tax office said it typically employs 100 to 150 temporary workers during peak seasons and that temporary hires form a key "tax academy" pipeline: roughly 60% of temps work in auto services and state-mandated modules take about six months to train. The office said 82 temporary workers were converted to permanent positions in the last year and argued the temp pipeline gives needed flexibility to meet seasonal and election-related demand.
Commissioners and precinct staff pressed for more detail on backlogs and how many temps are needed at different seasonal peaks; the tax office said property-invoice turnaround was about 13 business days at the end of July (11 days a year earlier) with a target of five business days. The auto services area, which runs year-round, was described as the largest training burden.
Apotheon and Marcus Hamilton (assistant chief deputy of finance, introduced during the hearing) asked the court to consider an enhancement for additional temporary staffing and outreach positions, including eight outreach hires to expand language access and increase community outreach and VDVR capacity.
The court asked the office to provide lists of ACT (auto committee) members and to follow up on a variety of process, performance and staffing questions; the tax office said it would supply that follow-up information.
