Houston Chronicle by Eric Dexheimer Dec. 24, 2020
30 years on, Texas colonia residents billed for service they never received
Jorge Gonzalez was puzzled when, in August 2019, the tax bill arrived at the home he shares with his mother near the Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley. It wasn’t for much — $237. But fees and interest tacked on by a collections law firm brought the total to $1,400.
More confusing was the governmental agency demanding payment — Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 1. Constructed in the early 1900s to divert water out of the Rio Grande to cotton, sugar cane and citrus crops, irrigation districts still pump out of the river. Much of the water now goes to growing nearby cities such as Edinburg and McAllen.
Yet Gonzalez’s neighborhood, known as Hoehn Drive, hadn’t been part of any irrigation district for nearly a quarter-century. That’s when he noticed the dates for the taxes he was being told to pay: 1983 to 1997.
“I thought, ‘This must be a mistake,’†he recalled. “Every year we’ve paid all our taxes on time.â€
Gonzalez checked with his neighbors. Hoehn Drive is considered a colonia, one of about 1,800 informally developed communities along the border characterized by a lack of basic services such as water and sewer systems. Residents overwhelmingly are Hispanics whose median income is much lower than in the rest of the state.
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/texas_legislature/article/30-years-on-Texas-colonia-residents-billed-for-15826930.php
