Why El Paso's Tax Office Is Reducing Hours And Closing An Office

If you have business with the El Paso County Tax Office, allow some extra time and check their hours of operation before you go.

The El Paso County Tax Office has never been known for being super speedy but now the wait times are growing as the offices cut back their business hours and close one completely. Sorry west siders, your office is history.

Call me silly but, I always thought the solution for being overloaded or having a sudden surge in workload was to work longer, extend hours and/or call in more help. El Paso seems to think cutting hours and completely closing an entire office will do the trick.

Citing, among other things, a huge backlog of vehicle registrations brought about by HB718 the county tax office on Executive Drive has been closed. All the other offices are now open only 4 days a week while they catch up on things and reorganize.

Why Are Tax Offices Closing?

Don't blame county tax assessor-collector Ruben Gonzalez though. According to him, he saw this problem coming and asked Commissioners Court for help which they, (it appears), opted not to allow.

“Until the Commissioner`s Court provides me the needed resources, the office on our Westside will be closed to the public to focus on dealer work. I have no choice, and it is not my desire to not provide our citizens with their needed services. If the Court would have given me the resources that they are required to provide, this would have been preventable, and I would not have been forced to close these offices temporarily.” - ktsm

READ MORE: New Laws In Texas For 2026

The closure and, I guess, the limited operating hours are temporary but for the time being, plan ahead if you have any tax business.

See The 10 States With The Highest Tax Burden

We can count on two things in life. Death and taxes.

In the state of New York, we can count on those taxes being high. But how high is our tax burden in the Empire State versus other states?

Wallethub recently ranked each of the 50 states based on overall tax burden which they define as "...the proportion of total personal income that residents pay toward state and local taxes." These rankings base that ax burden number on property, income, and sales taxes.

Here are the top 10 states from those rankings, And, yes, no surprise - New York made the list. But are we that bad off? See where New York ranks!

Gallery Credit: Matty Jeff