Scattered Thoughts While Trying to Keep Track of Brownsville Taxpayer Dollars

Your 4A and 4B Sales Tax Dollars Spent by the BCIC, GBIC

BEDC Director Jason Hilts

In 1992 the City of Brownsville decided to take advantage of a 1989 Texas law allowing the establishment a 4A entity to receive 1/2 cent of the 8-1/4 cent sales tax collected to use for economic development.   The Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, the beneficiary of such monies, has, according to their website, spent $49,000,000 from that taxpayer fund, $12,000,000 on "operating expenditures" and $37,000,000 on "project expenditures."

In 2002 Brownsville decided to split the 4A funds into a 4A and 4B, with a 4B entity getting 1/4 cent from each taxable dollar for "quality of life" projects.  Since that time the  Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation declares $10,300,000 spent on such projects.

Vetting and recommending projects for the GBIC is its symbiotic sister board, the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation.  The GBIC actually holds its meetings in the BEDC Board Room and BEDC Director Jason Hilts is the most vocal, active participant in those meetings.

The Obvious Waste of Your Tax Dollars~United Brownsville

IBC Bank President Fred Rusteberg

The United Brownsville Coordinating Board carries itself as if supervising the City of Brownsville, Cameron County, the Port of Brownsville, BISD and the public utilities.  They plan for Brownsville, presume to speak on its behalf, take credit for projects in the city, integrate actual city officials into their board, but its all a scam.  The leadership triumvirate, IBC Bank President Fred Rusteberg, outgoing UTB President Juliet Garcia and a loquacious UTB official, Irv Downing, have not been elected, appointed, anointed or have the birthright to any standing in the governance of Brownsville or Cameron County.  There is no mention of a United Brownsville Coordinating Board in the city charter.(Although the UB website lists their address as 1301 E. Madison St. their nonprofit registration with the State of Texas, updated December 13, 2013, uses 1001 E. Elizabeth St., the address of the Brownsville City Commission.)

The funding for United Brownsville embarrassingly comes entirely from 8 taxpayer or ratepayer entities, none of which have the intestinal fortitude to question the $25,000 expenditure for a fake administrative board that only has as much power as given by naive public officials.  8 X $25,000=$200,000.  That is United Brownsville's operating budget, but no where near what individual players hope to siphon off from local projects steered their way by the unauthorized, elitist board.  The nontransparent, unaccountable board recently used City Finance Director Pete Gonzalez to issue a totally bogus "financial report:"(http://meanmisterbrownsville.blogspot.com/2013/11/guidestar-invalidates-united.html)

V.I.D.A.(Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement)

Monsignor Heberto Diaz, V.I.D.A.,
TSC Foundation Chairman

V.I.D.A. representatives have been at every GBIC meetings we've attended, either to acknowledge a check, thank the board for their contribution or use economic development buzzwords to describe their achievements.  They are good, very good, at playing the charity-funded-by-local-government game.  The GBIC recently added $302,000 to V.I.D.A. coffers after hearing that the group had "taken 43 Brownsville residents off welfare, placing them into jobs with an average salary of $35,000 per year."

The typical Brownsville resident knows UTB graduates who can't get a job, let alone one paying 35 grand a year.  Interestingly, the Harlingen Economic Development Corporation were told by V.I.D.A. that the group had taken "93 of their residents off welfare and placed them in jobs with an average salary of $35,000 per year."  The HEDC recommended the Harlingen City Commission drop their funding of V.I.D.A., which they did.

Let's analyze what V.I.D.A. is saying:  The 43 they removed from the welfare rolls with counseling do not have college degrees, merely G.E.D.s, but are "on track" to getting an associate degree.  "On track" means they've enrolled at TSC.  But, despite being in school full-time, they are working at jobs paying $35,000 per year.  Yes, I know.  It's bull shit.

Carlos Marin, Ambiotec Engineering
(His Photo on V.I.D.A. Website)

After we messaged former V.I.D.A. Director Myra Caridad Garcia for more details, we were told she resigned.  Then, we heard from the same source, the director of a national charity, that she had merely taken sick leave.  The latest edition of the V.I.D.A. website shows she indeed has been replaced as director by Tony Aguirre.

Also on the V.I.D.A. board, explaining the GBIC's readiness to fund the program without concrete proof of its alleged successes, is Carlos Marin of Ambiotec Engineering, the Godfather of United Brownsville. Marin strives for a low profile, so not making a photo available is consistent with his modus operandi.

Marin made a heavy-handed move at the last GBIC board meeting, placing an item on the agenda that involved placing Juliet Garcia's ne'er-do-well son Oscar on the board, initially as an advisor, but eventually as chairman.  This item was tabled, but likely not dropped.  Stay tuned.

Dr. Rose Gowen, Brownsville's Busiest Non-Practicing Gynecologist

Dr. Rose Gowen

Dr. Rose Gowen is never far from taxpayer dollars.  She chairs the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation which utilizes millions of taxpayer dollars for "quality of life" projects in Brownsville.  If you get to work or play using the city's several bike trails, you largely have Gowen to thank.  The board she chairs also manages the Sports Park which explains the proposed ban on hot dogs and other "unhealthy" items being sold there.  

Gowen is also on the so-called TSC Foundation Board that recently attempted to make those funds available to Edinburg students attending the new UT-RGV, instead of exclusively to TSC students from Brownsville for whom the funds were originally intended.  

Gowen also sits on the United Brownsville Coordinating Board, for whatever that's worth and she is on the Brownsville City Commission.  

Oh, BTW, in her spare time, she is a gynecologist at Su Clinica Familiar, owned by, you guessed it, Carlos and Elena Marin.