Hidalgo County officials say property taxes aren’t bringing in enough money to improve drainage and street problems.

A bipartisan group of house lawmakers visited Valley colonias on Friday to ask why those taxes aren’t enough to pay for road and drainage projects in an area where many documented and undocumented residents are living under the poverty line.

One Hidalgo County commissioner said his hands are tied.

“If we had the ability to prepare shovel ready projects, we'd be spending millions of dollars just in design - and that's not reasonable for us,” Hidalgo County Precinct 1 Commissioner David Fuentes said.

The visits led to a congressional hearing in Weslaco where the topic went from flooding and poverty to immigrants and drugs crossing the border.

Congressman Vicente Gonzalez says he and his colleagues will bring along all the observations and recommendations they got in the Valley over to Washington D.C. so party leaders can divvy-up part of an enormous budget and have some of that funding fix some of the Valley's most critical drainage and road problems. 

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