The Cameron County Tax Office said it can take four to six weeks to find out if you were approved for a homestead exemption on your property taxes.

However, one Laguna Vista woman said she’s still waiting to hear back from her application over a year since she originally filed it.

Rachel Crist said she originally filed for a homestead exemption in November 2022, but was told by the Cameron County Appraisal District that she had missing paperwork.

Crist said she was later told she had everything squared away by March 2023. She added that he’s had to pay over $7,000 on property taxes in 2023.

“This is our second year to pay taxes on this property without any exemptions,” Crist said. “I would like to get it fixed and get our money back and into our savings account."

Crist refiled in May 2023 after months of waiting.

“I need to be taking care of my family,” Crist said. “We wrote our check, paid our taxes and are just holding hope they're going to get this all figured out."

Cameron County Appraisal District Chief Appraiser Richard Molina they’re facing a backlog this year due to having to manage the $100,000 exemption, and the 6,000 applications they’ve received.

“We do understand that this is taking longer than normal, but again this is a different situation than what we expected,” Molina said, adding that clerks are working on applications daily.

“Our process in trying to achieve that is at 100% right now," Molina said.

Officials with the county tax office said people can still come into their offices to receive help in filing their homestead exemption application.

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