County curtails travel citing lack of money
Cameron County offi-cials or employees hoping for job-related travel be-fore the end of the 2010-2011 fiscal year are pretty much out of luck.
The travel budget is without money, and with a little more than two months left in the fiscal year, travel will be curtailed unless it is absolutely necessary, County Judge Carlos H. Cascos said.
“Unnecessary travel is just going to have to be eliminated. Everybody wants to go to legislative conferences; everybody wants to go here and there. Sometimes we have to cut back and that is what we are going to have to do,” the county judge said.
If travel is deemed nec-essary, funding will have to either come from lapsed salaries or from some other department’s budget.
Cameron County Com-missioners Court allotted $100,000 for travel in the 2010-2011 budget and the money ran out after 10 months, Auditor Martha Galarza said.
Those departments that receive grants that include travel funding for training, such as the Sheriff’s De-partment and the Justices of the Peace, should not be affected.
In addition, departments that are able to find funding within their budgets will have to present budget amendments before Com-missioners Court for ap-proval, in order to have the money transferred to a travel line item, Galarza said.
A couple of years ago, the county implemented a travel budget and policy in which requests for travel would need to go before the Cameron County Commis-sioners Court. Travel re-quests that needed justifi-cation were those that cost the county money.
The travel-budget issue was brought to the fore-front about a week ago when requests for travel were brought before Com-missioners Court. Officials learned there was no more money for travel, Galarza said.
Requests for travel were made by 404th state Dis-trict Judge Elia Cornejo Lopez and County Treas-urer David A. Betancourt, both for required manda-tory continuing education. Cornejo Lopez’s travel expense was for $1,197.94, while Betancourt’s request was for $1,158.
Commissioners Court at first tabled the issue, but later brought it back for a vote and approved the travel — but asking Ga-larza to find funding to pay for it because it was re-quired training.
Cascos said Commis-sioners Court travel would also be scrutinized since commissioners should set an example as to what is deemed necessary travel.
“We are not an elite group and we should be treated like everybody else,” he said.
Cascos will go to a legis-lative conference in Austin to speak before the Texas Association of Counties and only agreed to be presenter as long as TAC paid for some of his travel ex-penses.
“I told TAC you want me to speak you take care of these costs for me and if not I’m not going to go,” he said. TAC agreed to pay half of the cost. The county will foot the rest of the bill.
As Commissioners Court works on the 2011-2012 budget, officials wanting to travel may have to inquire first if there are any online courses or conferences being offered at a closer distance, in order to reduce the amount of money spent on travel, the county judge said. Only after then, will travel be approved.
“We are on a tight budget as it is, so I don’t want to increase the travel budget. We just have to scrutinize it just a little bit better,” he said.
lmarti-nez@brownsvilleherald.com
