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Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
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Wiggins: County tax assessors are representat
Published June 9, 2009
SAN ANTONIO — The thought might not occur to everyone, but the employees in the office of the Tax Assessor-Collector can be a county’s most important ambassadors.
County Judge Mike Wiggins filled in Monday at the 55th annual conference of the Tax Assessor-Collectors Association of Texas, talking about the importance of relationships in the conduct of public business as well as the importance of the people who collect the revenue that government needs to operate.
“Every employee in a county is an ambassador for that county,” Wiggins told a crowd of 400 or so in the Ballroom of the Menger Hotel in San Antonio. “The sheriff’s department, the county clerk’s office and the district clerk’s office all deal with a limited number of people,” Wiggins said. “The tax department deals with everybody in the county or at least one or two members of each family at least once or twice a year, and for many of them, that will be their only interaction with county government. The employees in a tax office can be the county’s best ambassadors.”
Guadalupe County Tax Assessor-Collector Tavie Murphy, a past president of the tax assessors association who organized this week’s conference in San Antonio, understands that, Wiggins said, and he’s come to value her input on running the county administration — as much as he values her friendship.
“I’ve grown to love that lady,” Wiggins said. She does a wonderful job — she collects nearly 99 percent of taxes due. She shows kindness and has more sympathy for taxpayers than anybody I know. She knows bad things sometimes happen to good people. There is no reason to be on the delinquent tax rolls in Guadalupe County, because if you call Tavie Murphy, she’s going to find a way to get you on a plan that works. She does a wonderful job, and you can’t find a better example to follow than Ms. Murphy.”
Effective county government, Wiggins said, requires a team effort. Relationships, he said, makes it easier to do the job. Murphy is at every meeting of commissioners court, and she also provides regular reports to commissioners court on the status of the county’s tax collections.
Wiggins said Guadalupe County’s budget — including that supported by ad valorem taxes and other special funds, is about $60 million.
The input of the tax office is vital in building that budget, Wiggins said.
“I know each and every lady who works in the tax office,” Wiggins said. “I appreciate what they do and I know they put out a good image of the county. I’d like to say with Ms. Murphy’s help the budgets I’ve presented for the last two years have been balanced — the first two years in a very long time that a balanced budget has been submitted. For that, I depend on her and on her ability to project revenues.”
At conferences, Wiggins said, he sometimes hears other judges and commissioners complain about their relationships with various county departments.
“I ask, ‘What have you done to help solve the problem?’” Wiggins said. “They say, ‘I don’t have time to mess with that.’ I say, ‘Well, why don’t you? It’s a two-way street.”
Those tax offices that don’t enjoy as close a relationship as they might with their county government would do well to work to establish it on their own.
“Sometimes you can’t wait for them to take the first step,” Wiggins said. “Sometimes, you’ll have to do it. Start giving them regular information and hand-carry it to them, don’t just send them a report. They might not have time to read a report, but if you go talk to them, you could be surprised how many doors open up.”
And don’t forget deputy tax collectors — or any public employee, for that matter.
“Don’t slight these deputy clerks,” Wiggins said. “You can’t be successful if they’re not successful. I told Ms. Murphy when I took office my main job is to help you be as successful as you can possibly be. I can’t be successful if you aren’t successful first.”
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