Patricia Barrera believes that in addition to the two opponents she will face in the March 3 race for Webb County Tax Assessor Collector — incumbent Rosie Cuellar and Amalia Q. Valdez — she has two other opponents, Cuellar’s brothers, Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar and Congressman Henry Cuellar.
“The Sheriff’s army of deputies is working especially hard this election to ensure the outcome for the whole family and other favored candidates,” said Barrera, who held the position of Tax Assessor-Collector from 1993 to 2017. She left the post to run for Webb County Judge in 2017.
Barrera’s tenure as Assessor-Collector was notably hallmarked by efficiency of service and cross-trained employees who could as easily deal with vehicle registrations as property tax issues.
“We ran it like a business from the very beginning,” she said. “We knew tag renewals took three to five minutes and title transfers eight to 13 minutes, and we acted accordingly. You didn’t see many lines,” she said. “That’s a contrast to what you see now and what you hear about service in that department. You can be efficient and still be polite. And you should not make change to a good system without having a good reason,” she said.
According to Barrera, the current telephone system excludes the elderly and the economically disenfranchised who may not have a computer or Internet access to go to after hearing prompts on the phone for how to get information on their property taxes. “That’s an arrogant approach,” she said, adding that doing away with title hearings in the department was also exclusionary. “Someone who bought a thousand-dollar car and didn’t get a clear title can’t register the vehicle or insure it. That’s a big problem.” She said she would reinstate title hearings.
Barrera said she doesn’t stray far from what she learned from her parents. “I worked in our store on Corpus Christi as a child. I was cross-trained before anyone called it that. I swept, mopped, stocked the shelves, and worked at the register. I learned about the relationship between what you put into your work and what you get back. Most importantly, I learned you have to offer a hand up to those who need it. I don’t forget where I came from,” she said.
Barrera graduated from Holding Institute in 1969, graduated from Texas A&I University in Kingsville, and was a classroom teacher at Martin High School and L.J. Christen.
“I am looking forward to being back in the office and to be able to offer the same accountability and good service we did before,” Barrera said, adding, “You will see improvements immediately.”
For further information on Barrera’s campaign, call (956) 602-0240.
