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Hays County Commissioner Walt Smith voiced concerns about Judge Ruben Becerra’s tax history as the court prepared to approve the 2022 tax rate during a recent commissioner’s court meeting.
Smith asked Becerra if he felt comfortable voting on the tax rate, or if he would like to recuse himself. Becerra asked him to explain himself.
“When setting a tax rate, we are considering not only the taxes that are raised from here in the county, but funding that we received from the state as budgeted, funding we received from the federal government as budgeted,” Smith said. “Currently, you have over $1.1 million in federal tax liens that are unpaid. I just don’t know, if I were in your shoes, if I would want to levy taxes on citizens of our public whenever I don’t pay my own. I’m offering you that opportunity.”
Becerra responded, “Thank you so much for your generosity, I am so grateful,” and moved on to the vote.
Documents from the Department of Treasury — Internal Revenue Service obtained by the Daily Record point out two federal tax liens for non-payment pending in Small Business/Self Employed, Area #5.
The documents — Form 668(Y)(c) — are notices of federal tax lien which are filed with local and/or state authorities to alert creditors that the government has an interest in current and future property assets. The documents, as provided by section 6321, 6322 and 6323 of the Internal Revenue Code, read they are giving a notice that taxes, including interest and penalties, have been assessed against the following named taxpayer. Becerra is listed on one document, while he and his wife Monica are listed on another.
“Honestly, that’s Walt politicking … campaigning from the dais,” Becerra said. “There’s no other way to explain it.” Becerra said managing COVID has really taken a turn on him in ways that were profound.
“COVID has deepened my faith in ways I could have never imagined. So now, as things unfold, I see them as the waves of the ocean coming and going - and this is how it goes, it’s part of this show,” Becerra said. “Forgive Walt for he knows not what he does. Those are the most perfect words. I really hold no resentment for the actions he’s taking.”
Becerra says the claim he owes more than $1 million dollars is false, despite the liens posted on the Hays County Clerk’s Office’s website.
“I’m so grateful that I don’t owe the million dollars because you can only imagine how much I had to have made to owe a million dollars, that’s magnificent,” Becerra said. “I would have had to make $5 or $10 million. Wow.
“It’s untrue. We’ve done a little digging into it ourselves and the document looks weird,” Becerra added. “It just doesn’t harmonize so what we thought to do most simply just put out our tax returns. So, what we did was from 2016 all the way to ‘21, my wife put out the tax returns on our website: judgebecerra. org.” Following original publication by the Daily Record, Becerra claimed the documents were “FALSE info regarding my taxes owed” The county judge put copies of his 2016, 2017 and 2021 tax returns at judgebecerra. org. The federal tax lien documents were obtained by the Daily Record through the Hays County Clerk’s Office. One document includes liens on tax periods ending in 2016 and 2017, while the other has a lien on the tax period ending in 2018. Both documents were signed and certified that they were filed on Feb. 17, 2022 by Hays County Clerk Elaine H. Cardenas.
In total, Becerra owes nearly $1.1 million in unpaid 1040 federal personal income taxes, according to Form 668 (Y)(c) documents.
The document can be seen online at the Hays County Clerk’s self-service records website https://erss.co.hays.tx.us/
web/.
